HAROLD B. LEE LIBRARY
3RIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY
PROVO, UTAH
iV
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2012 with funding from
Brigham Young University
http://archive.org/details/recollectionsimp1908eddy
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
OF
JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
THIRD EDITION
H3
H3JT8IHW
WHISTLER
From a sketch by Rajon
/■.
/
RECOLLECTIONS AND
IMPRESSIONS
OF
James A. McNeill Whistler
BY
ARTHUR JEROME EDDY
AUTHOR OF '* DELIGHT I THE
SOUL OF ART," ETC.
i ? >
PHILADELPHIA <Sr» LONDON
B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
1908
Copyright, 1903
By J. B. Lippincott Company
Published December, 1903
Electrotyped and Printed by
J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, U. S. A.
THE LIBRARY
BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY
PROVO, UTAH
To L. O. E.
This Sixteenth Day of September
Nineteen Hu?idred and Three
FOREWORD
Most of what is contained herein has been col-
lected from time to time within the past ten years
and jotted down for use in certain lectures on
Whistler and his art. The lectures were, as is this
book, a tribute to the great painter.
The reminiscences are mostly personal. Many of
the anecdotes — though perhaps equally familiar to
others — were had from the artist's own lips. The
views concerning his art, whether right or wrong,
were formed while watching him at work day after
day, and after many interviews in which, now and
then, he would speak plainly concerning art. At
the same time not so much as a thought must be
attributed to him unless expressly quoted.
The biographical data — just sufficient to furnish a
connecting thread and aid in the appreciation — have
been gathered from casual sources, and are, no
doubt, subject to incidental corrections.
Only when a duly authorized "life and letters" is
published by those who have access to the material
that must exist will the great artist be known by the
world as he really was — a profoundly earnest, serious,
loving, and lovable man.
Meanwhile, those who believe in his art must —
like the writer — speak their convictions for what
they are worth.
7
CONTENTS
¥
I
PAGE
Why he never Returned to America — Tariff on Art —
South America — Valparaiso 15
II
A Family of Soldiers — Grandfather founded Chicago —
Birth — St. Petersburg — West Point — Coast Survey
—His Military Spirit 25
III
An American — The Puritan Element — Attitude of Eng-
land and France — Racial and Universal Qualities
in Art — Art-Loving Nations fy
IV
Early Days in Paris and Venice — Etchings, Lithographs,
and Water-Colors — "Propositions" and "Ten
o'Clock" 79
V
Chelsea — The Royal Academy — ' ' Portrait of Hi?
Mother" — " Carlyle" — Grosvenor Gallery — The
"Peacock Room" — Concerning Exhibitions . . . 109
VI
The Ruskin Suit — His Attitude towards the World and
towards Art — "The Gentle Art of Making Ene-
mies" — Critics and Criticism (Kfo
9
CONTENTS
VII
PAGK
Supreme as a Colorist — Color and Music — His Suscepti-
bilty to Color — Ruskin and Color — Art and Nature 173
VIII
The Royal Society of British Artists — In Paris once
more — At Home and at Work 217
IX
Portrait-Painting — How he Differed from his Great
Predecessors — The "Likeness" — Composition of
Color — No Commercial Side — Baronet vs. Butterfly 244
X
The School of Carmen — In Search of Health — Chelsea
once more — The End 277
Index 289
10
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Whistler Frontispiece.
From a sketch by Rajon
Crepuscule in Flesh Color and Green ; Valpa-
raiso ......... 22
Harmony in Gray and Green. Portrait of Miss
Alexander ........ 50
The Lange Leizen — of the Six Marks — Purple
and Rose ........ 58
Plate made while in the employ of the Govern-
ment at Washington, 1854-55 . . . .88
Arrangement in Gray and Black. Portrait of
the Painter's Mother 114
Arrangement in Black. La Dame au Brode-
quine Jaune. . . . . . . .120
Arrangement in Gray and Black. Portrait of
Thomas Carlyle . . . . . .122
Nocturne, Black and Gold. The Falling
Rocket ........ 140
Blue and Silver ; Blue Wave, Biarritz . -174
Little Rose, Lyme Regis 274
Symphony in White, No. II. The Little White
Girl 282
n
" This man, who took no joy in the ways of his brethren
— who cared not for conquest, and fretted in the field — this
designer of quaint patterns — this deviser of the beautiful —
who perceived in Nature about him curious curvings, as
faces are see7i i7i the fire — this dreamer apart, was the first
artist. " — Whistler's ' ' Ten o' Clock. ' '
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
OF
JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
¥&¥
I
Why he never Returned to America — Tariff on
Art — South America — Valparaiso.
Now that the end has come and the master is no
more, the scattered sheaves of stories and anecdotes,
of facts and fancies, of recollections and impressions
may be gathered together from the four quarters,
and the story of his work be told, — not in detail,
not in sequence, for some one will write his life,
but in fragmentary fashion as the thoughts occur.
For the better part of his life Whistler fought the
prejudices of all Europe and of his own country.
He once said, with a tinge of bitterness in his
tone :
"The papers in America seem content to publish
second-hand whatever they find about me in English
journals that is mean and vindictive or that savors
of ridicule. Aside from the hopeless want of origi-
nality displayed in echoing the stupidities of others,
what has become of that boasted love of fair play?
15
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
Even the phlegmatic Englishman takes the part of a
fellow-countryman against many — quite regardless ;
but the American press — bully like — leans to the
side of the bully and weakly cries, bravo ! whenever
the snarling pack on this side snaps at the heels of
an American who mocks them at the doors of their
own kennels.
" One would think the American people would
back a countryman — right or wrong — who is
fighting against odds ; but for thirty years they
laughed when the English laughed, sneered when
they sneered, scoffed when they scoffed, lied when
they lied, until, — well, until it has been necessary to
reduce both nations to submission."
For a time he worked without a word, then :
"But when France — in all things discerning —
proclaimed the truth, America — still blind — hastened
to shout that she, too, saw the light, and poured
forth adulation ad nauseam."
" But would you say that Americans are as dense
as the English?"
" Heaven forbid that the Englishman's one un-
deniable superiority be challenged ; but an English-
man is so honest in his stupidity that one loves him
for the — virtue ; whereas the American is a ' smart
Aleck' in his ignorance, and therefore intolerable."
But that was years ago, when the unconverted
were more numerous on this side, — there are still a
number of stubborn dissenters, but in the chorus
of praise their voices are scarce more than a few
discordant notes.
16
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
Of late Whistler had but little cause to complain
of lack of appreciation on this side, — for, while an art
so subtle as his is bound to be more or less misun-
derstood, critics, amateurs, and a goodly portion of
the public have for a long time acknowledged his
greatness as an etcher, a lithographer, and a painter.
In fact, for at least ten years past his works have
been gradually coming to this country — where they
belong. England and Scotland have been searched
for prints and paintings until the great collections —
much greater than the public know — of his works
are here. Some day the American people will be
made more fully acquainted with the beautiful things
he has done, many of which have never been seen
save by a few intimate friends.
The struggle for recognition was long and bitter,
— so long and so bitter that it developed in him the
habits of controversy and whimsical irritability by
which he was for a generation more widely known
than through his art.
When it was once reported that he was going to
America, he said, " It has been suggested many
times ; but, you see, I find art so absolutely irritating
to the people that, really, I hesitate before exas-
perating another nation."
To another who asked him when he was coming,
he answered, with emphasis, "When the duty on art
is removed."
The duty on art was a source of constant irrita-
tion to Whistler, — for, while the works of American
17
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
artists residing abroad are admitted free, the artist
is compelled to make oaths, invoices, and take out
consular certificates, and pay the consular fees in line
with the shipper of olive oil and cheese.
There was even a time, under the present law,
when the works of American painters were not ad-
mitted free. The law reads, the works of American
artists " residing temporarily abroad" shall be ad-
mitted free, etc.
Some department at Washington made an off-
hand ruling that if an American artist had resided
more than five years abroad his works would be
subject to duty as those of a foreigner, thereby
expatriating with a stroke of the pen four-fifths of
the Americans who are working like dogs — but as
artists — to make the world beautiful.
To Whistler, Sargent, and the many prosperous
ones the ruling did not greatly matter, but to the
younger men who could not earn money enough to
get home it did matter, and for a time it looked as
if American art in Europe would be obliterated, — for
American art in Europe depends for its support and
aggressiveness on the American artists over there.
Drive these men home, or expatriate them, so as to
compel them to cast their lots with France, or Eng-
land, or Italy, and what would become of those
American sections in foreign exhibitions which for
at least a dozen years past have commanded the
serious consideration of all thoughtful observers as
containing elements of strength, sobriety, and prom-
ise found nowhere else in the entire world of art?
18
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
Happily an appeal to the Secretary of the Treas-
ury — a man interested in art — resulted in an imme-
diate reversal of the ruling, and the works of
American artists come in free unless the artist de-
clares his intention of residing abroad permanently.
But while the ban on American painting is lifted,
sculpture is in a bad way. Under the law only
sculpture "wrought by hand" from marble or
metal by the sculptor is to be classed as art. Inas-
much as the sculptor never did work bronze by hand,
and nowadays very rarely touches the marble,
there is no sculpture which comes within the law.
The federal courts of New York, high and low,
have soberly held that unless it is shown that bronzes
are "wrought by hand" by the sculptor, instead of
cast from plaster, which in turn is made from the
clay, they are commercial products and classed with
bronze cooking utensils at forty-five per cent. duty.
However, a federal judge in Chicago, somewhat
more familiar with art processes, has held that the
New York decisions are arrant nonsense, and orig-
inal bronzes by Rodin, St. Gaudens, and other
sculptors, made in the only known way of producing
bronzes, should be classed as art. What other
federal courts may hold — each, under our wonderful
system, having the right to its opinion until the
Supreme Court is called upon to finally end the dif-
ferences — Heaven alone knows ; but for the present
it behooves lovers of art to bring in their original
bronzes and marbles by way of Chicago.
These were some of the things Whistler — in
19
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
common with many an ordinary man — could not
understand.
A few years ago an effort was made to have an
exhibition of his pictures in Boston. He was ap-
pealed to, but refused :
" God bless me, why should you hold an exhi-
bition of pictures in America ? The people do not
care for art."
"How do you know? You have not been there
for many years."
" How do I know ! Why, haven't you a law to
keep out pictures and statues ? Is it not in black
and white that the works of the great masters must
not enter America, that they are not wanted "
"But "
"There are no ' buts' about it except the fool
who butts his head against the barrier you have
erected. A people that tolerates such a law has no
love for art, — their protestation is mere pretence."
That a great nation should deliberately discourage
the importation of beautiful things, should wallow
in the mire of ugliness and refuse to be cleansed by
art, was to him a mystery, — for what difference does
it make whether painting, poetry, and music come
out of the East or out of the West, so long as they
add to the happiness of a people ? And why should
painting and sculpture find the gate closed when
poetry and music are admitted ?
He did not know the petty commercial consider-
ations which control certain of the painters and
20
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
sculptors and some of the institutions supposed to
be devoted to art.
For is not art the most "infant" of all the " infant
industries" of this great commercial nation? And
should not the brush-worker at home be given his
meed of protection against the pauper brush-workers
of Europe — even against Rembrandt and Velasquez
and all the glorious Italians?
Beethoven and Mendelssohn and Mozart, Shake-
speare and Milton, — their works, even their original
manuscripts, if in existence, though costly beyond
many paintings, come in without let or hinderance ;
but the work of the painter, the original manuscript
of the poet in line, of the composer of harmonies
in color, may not cross the border without tribute.
A symphony in sound is welcomed ; a symphony
in color is rejected. Why this discrimination in
favor of the ear and against the eye ?
There is no reason, but an inordinate amount of
selfishness, in it all. The wire-pulling painter at
home, backed up by the commercially-managed art
institution, makes himself felt in the chambers at
Washington where tariffs are arranged, and paint-
ing and sculpture are removed from the free list and
placed among the pots and kettles of commerce.
Where is the poet and where is the musician in
this distribution of advantages ? Why should Ameri-
can poetry and American music be left to compete
with the whole world while American painting and
American sculpture are suitably encouraged by a
tariff of twenty per cent. ? — a figure fixed, no doubt,
21
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
as is the plea, to make good the difference in wages,
— pauper labor of Europe, — pauper artists. Alas !
too true ; shut the vagabonds out that their aristo-
cratic American confreres residing at home may
maintain their " standard of living."
Of all the peoples on the face of the globe, high
and low, civilized and savage, there is just one that
discourages the importation of the beautiful, and that
one happens to be the youngest and the richest of
all — the one most in need of what it wilfully ex-
cludes.
Notwithstanding all these reasons for not coming,
he had a great desire to visit this country, and in
letters to friends on this side he would again and
again express his firm intention to come the follow-
ing summer or winter, as the season might be. The
death of Mrs. Whistler, some six years ago, and his
own ill health prevented, — but there was no lack of
desire.
Strangely enough, he did take a sailing-ship for
South America, away back in the sixties, and while
there painted the " Crepuscule in Flesh Color and
Green; Valparaiso" and the " Nocturne Blue and
Gold ; Valparaiso."
Speaking of the voyage, he said :
" I went out in a slow sailing-ship, the only passenger.
During the voyage I made quite a number of sketches and
painted one or two sea-views, — pretty good things I thought
at the time. Arriving in port, I gave them to the purser to
22
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
take back to England for me. On my return, some time later,
I did not find the package, and made inquiries for the purser.
He had changed ships and disappeared entirely. Many years
passed, when one day a friend, visiting my studio, said :
" * By the way, I saw some marines by you in the oddest
place you can imagine. '
" 'Where?' I asked, amazed.
" ' I happened in the room of an old fellow who had once
been a purser on a South American ship, and while talking
with him saw tacked up on the wall several sketches which
I recognized as yours. I looked at them closely, and asked
the fellow where he got them.
" ' " Oh, these things," he said ; " why, a chap who went
out with us once painted them on board, off-hand like, and
gave them to me. Don't amount to much, do they ?"
" ' "Why, man, they are by Whistler."
" * "Whistler," he said, blankly. "Who's Whistler?"
" ' "Why, Whistler the artist, — the great painter."
" ' " Whistler, Whistler. I believe that was his name. But
that chap warn't no painter. He was just a swell who went
out with the captain ; he thought he could paint some, and
gave me those things when we got to Valparaiso. No, I
don't care to let them go, — for, somehow or other, they look
more like the sea than real pictures.
Whistler made several attempts to find these
sketches, but without success.
As illustrating his facility of execution when time
pressed, he painted the " Crepuscule in Flesh Color
and Green," which is a large canvas and one of his
best things, at a single sitting, having prepared his
colors in advance of the chosen hour.
He could paint with the greatest rapidity when
out-of-doors and it was important to catch certain
effects of light and color.
23
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
In 1894 he exhibited in Paris three small marines
which were marvels of clearness, force, and pre-
cision ; he had painted them in a few hours while in
a small boat, which the boatman steadied against the
waves as best he could. He placed the canvas
against the seat in front of him and worked away
direct from nature.
24
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
//
A Family of Soldiers — Grandfather founded Chi-
cago — Birth — St. Petersburg — West Point —
Coast Survey — His Military Spirit.
He came of a race of fighters. The family is
found towards the end of the fifteenth century in
Oxfordshire, at Goring and Whitechurch on the
Thames ; one branch was connected with the Web-
sters of Battle-Abbey, and descendants still live in
the vicinity ; another branch is in Essex, and from
this sprang Dr. Daniel Whistler, President of the
College of Physicians in London in the time of
Charles the Second, and described as "a quaint
gentleman of rare humor," and frequently men-
tioned in " Pepys's Diary."
From the Oxfordshire branch, one Ralph, a son
of Hugh Whistler of Goring, went to Ireland and
founded the Irish branch from which sprang Major
John Whistler, the first representative of the family
in America, and grandfather of the painter.
Major Whistler was a British soldier under Bur-
goyne, and was taken prisoner at the battle of
Saratoga. At the close of the war he returned to
England and made a runaway match with the
daughter of a Sir Edward Bishop.
25
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
Returning to this country with his wife, he settled
at Hagerstown, Maryland, and soon after enlisted in
the American army.
" He was made a sergeant-major in a regiment
that was called 'the infantry regiment' Afterwards
he was adjutant of Garther's regiment of the levies
of 1 79 1, which brought him into General St Clair's
command. He was severely wounded November
4, 1 79 1, in a battle with the Indians on the Miami
River. In 1792 'the regiment of infantry' was, by
Act of Congress, designated as the ' First Regiment,'
and to this John Whistler was assigned as first lieu-
tenant. In November, 1796, he was promoted to
the adjutancy, and in July, 1797, he was commis-
sioned a captain."
While captain of the " First Regiment," then
stationed at Detroit, he was, in 1803, ordered to
proceed to the present site of the city of Chicago
and construct Fort Dearborn.
He and his command arrived on August 17, at
two o'clock in the afternoon, and at once staked out
the ground and began the erection of palisades for
protection against the Indians.
The captain had with him at the time one son,
William, who was a lieutenant in the army, and who
was commander of Fort Dearborn in 1833, when
the fort was finally abandoned as a military post
Another son, John, remained in the East.
On the completion of the fort the captain brought
out the remaining members of his family, — his wife,
five daughters, and his third son, George, then but
26
a
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
three years old, and afterwards the father of the
artist.
"The daughters were Sarah, who married James
Abbott, of Detroit, — the ceremony took place in the
fort, shortly after the family came ; the wedding-trip
was made to Detroit on horseback, over an Indian
trail and the old territorial road ; they had two
nights of camping out ; their effects were carried on
pack-horses, — Ann, married Major Marsh, of the
army ; Catherine, married Major Hamilton, of the
army ; Harriet, married Captain Phelan, also of the
army ; Caroline — eight months old when her father
built Fort Dearborn — was married in Detroit, in
1840, to William R. Wood, of Sandwich, Georgia."
When the army was reduced in June, 181 5,
Major Whistler was retired, and in 18 18 appointed
military storekeeper at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis.
He died at Bellefontaine, Missouri, in 1827. "He
was a brave officer and became the progenitor of a
line of brave and efficient soldiers."
To a visitor from Chicago the artist once said :
" Chicago, dear me, what a wonderful place ! I
really ought to visit it some day, — for, you know,
my grandfather founded the city and my uncle was
the last commander of Fort Dearborn."
George Washington Whistler, the father of the
painter, became an engineer of great reputation,
rose to the rank of major, and in 1842 accepted the
invitation of Czar Nicholas to superintend the con-
struction of the St. Petersburg and Moscow Railroad,
27
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
and it is said that, with the exception of John Quincy
Adams, no American in Russia was held in such
high estimation.
Major Whistler has been described as a very-
handsome man ; he had rather long curling hair
which framed a most agreeable face. " He might
have been taken for an artist, rather than for a
military engineer. Yet he was, in every sense, a
manly man, with most attractive expression and
ways."
Whistler's mother — his father's second wife — was
Anna Mathilda McNeill, a daughter of Dr. C. D.
McNeill, of Wilmington, North Carolina.
So much for the stock from which Whistler sprang,
a line of able men and good fighters. In a round-
about way he must have inherited some of the traits
of that "quaint gentleman of rare humor" so fre-
quently mentioned by garrulous Samuel Pepys, who
says in one place, " Dr. Whistler told a pretty story.
. . . Their discourse was very fine ; and if I should
be put out of my office, I do take great content in
the liberty I shall be at of frequenting these gentle-
men's company."
It is reported that Whistler once stated he was
born in St. Petersburg, and he certainly seemed to
take delight in mystifying people as to the date and
place of his birth, — part of his habitual indifference
to the sober requirements of those solemn meta-
physical entities Time and Space.
One friend has insisted in print upon Baltimore
28
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
as his birthplace, another upon Stonington, Con-
necticut.
His model once asked him :
" Where were you born?"
" I never was born, my child ; I came from on
high."
Quite unabashed, the model retorted :
"Now, that shows how easily we deceive our-
selves in this world, for I should say you came from
below."
The Salon catalogue of 1882 referred to him as
"McNeill Whistler, born in the United States."
His aversion to discussing dates, the lapse of years,
the time it would take to paint a portrait, or do any-
thing else, amounted to a superstition.
For him time did not exist. He did not carry a
watch, and no obtrusive clock was to be seen or
heard anywhere about him. He did not believe in
mechanical devices for nagging and prompting much-
goaded humanity. If he were invited to dinner, it
was always the better part of wisdom to order the
dinner at least a half-hour later than the moment
named in the invitation.
He once had an engagement to dine with some
distinguished people in a distant part of London.
A friend who wished to be on time was waiting for
him in the studio. It was growing late, but Whistler
kept on painting, more and more absorbed.
"My dear fellow," his friend urged at last, "it is
frightfully late, and you have to dine with Lady .
Don't you think you'd better stop ?"
29
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
"Stop?" fairly shrieked Whistler. "Stop, when
everything is going so beautifully? Go and stuff
myself with food when I can paint like this ? Never !
Never ! Besides, they won't do anything until I get
there, — they never do !"
An official connected with an international art
exhibition was about to visit Paris to consult with
the artists. To save time, he sent notes ahead
making appointments at his hotel with the different
men at different hours. To Whistler he sent a note
fixing a day at "4. 30 precisely," whereupon Whist-
ler regretfully replied :
" Dear Sir : I have received your letter announcing that
you will arrive in Paris on the — th. I congratulate you. I
never have been able, and never shall be able, to be any-
where at ' 4. 30 precisely. '
' ' Yours most faithfully,
"J. McN. Whistler."
To the stereotyped inquiry of the sitter :
"About how many sittings do you require, Mr.
Whistler?"
" Dear me, how can I tell ? Perhaps one, per-
haps — more."
" But — can't you give me some idea, so I can
arrange "
"Bless me, but you must not permit the doing
of so trivial a thing as a portrait to interfere with
the important affairs of life. We will just paint in
those odd moments when you have nothing better
to do."
30
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
"Suppose I am compelled to leave the city before
it is finished?"
"You will return next summer, and we will re-
sume where we left off, as the continued-story-teller
says. ' '
And no amount of persuasion could get him to
say when he expected to finish a work.
He would frequently say :
"We will just go ahead as if there were one long
holiday before us, without thinking of the end, and
some day, when we least expect it, the picture is
finished ; but if we keep thinking of the hours in-
stead of the work, it may never come to an end."
This indifference to time kept him young — to the
very last. He persistently refused to note the flight
of years.
There was once a very old Indian, how old no
one knew, in Northern Michigan who, when asked
his age by the pertinaciously curious, always replied,
" I do not count the years ; white people do — and
die."
His father went to Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1834
to take charge of the construction of the canals and
locks. He resided in a house on Worthen Street,
and there Whistler was born on July 10.
In a history of Lowell it is stated that Whistler
was probably born in what was known as the Paul
Moody house, a fine old house which stood on the
site of the present city hall ; but quite possibly the
family occupied a house owned by the proprietors
31
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
of the locks and canals, which still stands and is
pointed out as the " Locks and Canal house."
The old parish book of St Anne's Episcopal
Church contains the following entry under 1834 :
" Nov. 9, Baptized James Abbott, infant son of
George Washington and Anna Mathilda Whistler.
Sponsors, the parents. T. Edson."
Rev. Theodore Edson was the rector of the church.
The adoption of his mother's maiden name,
McNeill, as part of his own was apparently an after-
thought.
He had two brothers, William and Kirke, a half-
brother, George, and a half-sister, Deborah, who
married Seymour Haden, the well-known physician
and etcher, who figures in "Gentle Art" as the " Sur-
geon-etcher." Of the brothers, Kirke died young,
George remained in this country, William became a
well-known physician in London, dying a few years
ago.
The family afterwards spent a short time in Ston-
ington, where Major Whistler had charge of the con-
struction of the railroad to Providence. They used
to drive to church in Westerly in a chaise fitted
with railway wheels, so as to travel on the tracks.
There were no Sunday trains in those days, so the
track was clear. An ingenious device enabled the
horse to cross the culverts.
A locomotive named "Whistler" after the dis-
tinguished engineer — a felicitous name — was in use
until comparatively few years ago.
32
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
In the spring of 1840 Major Whistler was ap-
pointed consulting engineer for the Western Rail-
road, running from Springfield to Albany, and the
family moved to Springfield and lived in what " is
now known as Ethan Chapin homestead, on Chestnut
Street, north of Edwards Street"
Old residents of the vicinity claim to remember
" well the curly locks and bright, animated counte-
nance of the boy," and that the three boys "were
always full of mischief," — not an uncommon trait
in youngsters, probably still less uncommon in Whist-
lers.
Shortly after the railroad to Albany was opened a
wreck occurred, and a niece of Major Whistler, who
was on her way to visit him, was badly injured. She
was taken to his house, and it was a long time before
she recovered.
The accident made a strong impression on Whist-
ler, and possibly accounts for some of the dislike he
often showed towards travelling alone. It was only
in crossing crowded streets and in the confusion and
bustle of travel that he showed what might be called
nervousness.
With characteristic gallantry he would offer a lady
his arm to aid her in crossing the Strand or the
Boulevard, but he made sure of the places of refuge
and took no chances ; if in a hurry, she would better
cross alone.
Once, not many years ago, he was at Dieppe, and
wrote a friend in Paris almost daily that he would be
in the city to see him. A week passed, and the
3 33
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
friend, fearing he would be obliged to leave without
seeing Whistler, wrote him he would come to Dieppe
and see the work he was doing there, to which sug-
gestion Whistler replied most cordially by wire.
The friend packed and went, expecting to stay a
night or two at least ; but, lo ! Whistler, bag in hand,
met him in the village to take the next train back ;
whereupon the friend, much surprised, said :
" If you intended going to Paris to-day, why
under the sun did you let me ride half a day to get
here ?"
"Well, you see, I don't like to travel alone ; happy
thought yours to come down after me."
And back they went, after a delightful luncheon in
that little old restaurant near the cathedral, where
there is an ancient stone trough filled with water for
cooling and cleaning vegetables. The luncheon, the
way it was ordered, and the running fire of comment
and directions by Whistler to the stout old woman
who did it all, were worth the journey to Dieppe.
Whistler will be mourned more by these lowly
people who used to serve him with pleasure, because
he took such a vital interest in what they did, than
by many who own his works.
A diary kept by the artist's mother contains this
entry, under date of July 10, 1844 :
"A poem selected by my darling Jamie, and put
under my plate at the breakfast- table, as a surprise
on his tenth birthday."
The little poem of twelve lines was addressed
34
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
"To My Mother," and subscribed "Your Little
James."
When the boy was eleven years old, Sir William
Allen, a Scotch painter, visited the family. Mrs.
Whistler's diary contains the following entry :
"The chat then turned upon the subject of Sir William
Allen's painting of Peter the Great teaching the majiks to
make ships. This made Jimmie's eyes express so much
interest that his love for the art was discovered, and Sir
William must needs see his attempts. When my boys had
said good-night, the great artist remarked to me, ' Your little
boy has uncommon genius, but do not urge him beyond his
inclination.' I told him his gift had only been cultivated as
an amusement, and that I was obliged to interfere, or his ap-
plication would confine him more than we approved."
The diary records the same year a visit to the old
palace at Peterhoff, where " our Jimmie was so saucy
as to laugh" at Peter's own paintings.
When Major Whistler first went to Russia he left
"Jamie" for a time in Stonington with his aunt,
and the two older children, George and Deborah, in
England.
After the death of Major Whistler, in St. Peters-
burg, in 1849, the wife and children returned to this
country, and lived for a time in Connecticut.
Whistler wished to enter West Point, and he per-
suaded his half-brother to write Daniel Webster,
to enlist his sympathy. The letter was dated Febru-
ary 19, 1 85 1. It referred to the father's career and
35
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
services and asked that James be appointed to the
Academy.
He was appointed by President Fillmore, and
entered July I, 185 1, registering from Pomfret,
Windham County, Connecticut, where his mother
was then living.
Whistler was so small in stature and physique that
it is surprising he was received ; the military record
of his family was no doubt the controlling considera-
tion.
He possessed all the pugnacity and courage re-
quired for a soldier, and the military spirit was strong
in him, yet such was his bent towards art that his
career at the Academy was not one of glory ; but he
became very popular with his comrades and proba-
bly led in all their mischievous pranks.
The official records show that at the end of the
first year, in 1852, he stood forty-one in a class of
fifty-two, — his standing in the different studies being
as follows: Mathematics 47, English studies 51,
French 9. At the end of his second year he stood
number one in drawing, but was not examined in
other studies, being absent with leave on account
of ill health. In 1854 his standing was as follows :
Philosophy 39, Drawing 1, Chemistry deficient.
For his deficiency in chemistry he was discharged
from the Academy on June 16, 1854.
A lady once asked him why he left the Academy,
and he replied :
" If silicon had been a gas, madame, I should have
been a soldier."
36
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
On leaving West Point he took it into his head
that Fate had intended him for a sailor, and he tried
to enter the Naval Academy at Annapolis, but he
could not get the appointment.
Through an old friend of the family, Captain Ben-
ham, of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, he was
employed as draughtsman in that department in
Washington from November 7, 1854, to February
12, 1855, at one dollar and a half a day. In these
days he signed himself James A. Whistler. His
lodgings were in an old house still standing on the
northeast corner of E and Twelfth Streets. He was
always late to breakfast, and scribbled pictures on
the unpapered walls. When the landlord objected,
he said :
" Now, now, never mind ; I'll not charge you any-
thing for the decoration."
Neither time nor the rules of the department had
any terrors for him. Even in those early days he
was a law unto himself. In one instance the fol-
lowing entry appears against his name :
"Two days absent and two days deducted from
monthly pay for time lost by coming late to
office."
To correct these dilatory habits Captain Benham
conceived the brilliant idea of having a fellow-clerk
of punctual habits call each morning for Whistler
and bring him to the office on time. The captain
believed that the example and influence of a more
methodical companion would reform the erring one
and get him to the office at nine o'clock; but it
37
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
turned out quite otherwise, for Whistler proved so
charming a host each morning that both were late.
At the end of a week the mentor reported that
his efforts were wasted and unless relieved he, too,
would acquire the obnoxious habit, for each morning
Whistler managed to so interest him in the mysteries
of coffee-making and the advantages of late break-
fasts that it was impossible to get away.
Of him and his habits in those days a fellow-
draughtsman, 1 who is still in the service, says :
• ' He was about one year younger than myself, and there-
fore about twenty years old at that time. He stayed but a
little over three months, and I have not met him since, but
retain a more vivid recollection of his sojourn than of that
of many other draughtsmen who succeeded him and remained
much longer. This may be partly for the reason that Cap-
tain Benham, who was then in charge of the office, told me
that Whistler's father had been a star graduate of West
Point and a distinguished engineer, and requested me to be
attentive to the new appointee ; it may also be for the reason
that there was something peculiar about Whistler's person
and actions quite at variance with the ordinary run of my
experience.
"His style of dress indicated an indifference to fashion
which, under circumstances, might be changed into emanci-
pation when fashion, for instance, went into extremes and
exacted personal discomforts. I certainly cannot remember
Whistler with a high-standing collar and silk hat, which was
then the universal custom. Classical models seemed to be
his preference, a short circular cloak and broad-brimrned
felt hat gave him a finish which reminded one of some of
1 Mr. A. Lindenkohl, now the oldest draughtsman in the
department.
38
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
Rembrandt's celebrated portraits. His tout ensemble had a
strong tinge of Bohemianism which suggested that his tastes
and habits had been acquired in Paris, or, more concisely
speaking, in the Ouartier Latin ; indeed, he always spoke of
Paris with enthusiasm. His manners were those of an easy
self-reliance which conveyed the impression that he was a
man who minded his own business, but that it would not be
exactly safe to cross his paths.
"At the time of his engagement as draughtsman at the
office not the slightest doubt was entertained of his skill and
ability to fill his post, and it was the principal concern of
Captain Benham to get him sufficiently interested in his
work to engage his serious attention. It was, however, soon
apparent that he considered topographical drawing as a
•tiresome drudgery, and when he was put on etching views
on copper plate, this occupation, although more congenial to
his tastes, was yet too monotonous and mechanical and did
not afford sufficient scope to his peculiar talent for sketching
off-hand figures and to make him feel contented. Any odd
moment he could snatch from his work he was busy in
throwing off his impromptu compositions on the margins of
his drawings or plate ; odd characters, such as monks, knights,
beggars, seemed to be his favorites. He was equally skilful
with pen and ink, pencil, brush and sepia after the Spanish
style, or dry point in the English, and often I was struck by
the facility and rapidity with which he evolved his inventions,
there never was the shadow of a dilemma or even hesitancy.
" From the very start he never was punctual in attendance,
and as time wore on he would absent himself for days and
weeks without tendering any excuse. As far as I remember,
nobody, except Captain Benham, cared to speak to Whistler
about his irregularity, for the reason that it was certain that
no thanks would be earned and that it would not have made
the slightest difference in his habits. Howsoever that may
have been, Colonel Porterfield, the clerk, was a strict ac-
countant, and his monthly reports told the whole story.
39
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
Thus in one month two days were deducted from Whistler's
pay for time lost in coming late to office, and in January,
1855, he was credited with but six and one-half days' work,
which reduced his scant pay to a mere pittance.
' ' Under these circumstances three months were quite suf-
ficient length of time for Whistler and the office to realize
that the employment of Whistler as a draughtsman was an
experiment destined to be a failure, and I do not think that
a trace of ill feeling was retained when it was concluded by
both parties to effect a separation and let each one go his
own way."
At that time Edward de Stoeckl was charge
d'affaires of the Russian embassy. He had known
Major Whistler in St. Petersburg, and he took a
great fancy to his son.
One day Whistler invited him to dinner, and this
is the account of what happened :
• ' Whistler engaged a carriage and called for his distin-
guished friend. As they drove on, Whistler turned to the
diplomat and asked him if he would object to their stopping
at several places on the way. M. de Stoeckl, amused at the
unconventionality of the request, assented, and his young
host then directed the coachman to a greengrocer's, a con-
fectioner's, a tobacconist's, and to several other tradesmen.
' ' After visiting each of these he would reappear with his
arms filled with packages, which he deposited on the vacant
seat of the carriage. At last the two brought up at Whistler's
lodgings. After a climb up many stairs the representative
of the Czar of all the Russias found himself in Whistler's
attic.
"Quite out of breath, he was obliged to sit down, too
exhausted to speak, during which time Whistler flitted hither
and thither, snipping a lettuce into shape for the salad, dry-
ing the oysters, browning the biscuit, preparing the cheese,
40
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
and in an incredibly short time setting a sumptuous repast
before his astonished guest, who was delighted with the
unique hospitality of the host."
A comrade in office describes Whistler's appear-
ance in those days :
" He was very handsome, graceful, dressed in good taste,
with a leaning towards the style of the artist in the selection
of his clothing. His hair was a blue-black and worn very
long, and the bushy appearance seemed to give one the
impression that each separate hair was curled. Always at
this time he wore a large slouch hat and a loose coat, gen-
erally unbuttoned, and thrown back so that the waistcoat was
plainly seen."
He never changed very much from that descrip-
tion, save that his hair became slightly gray, and
one lock directly over the forehead turned com-
pletely white very prematurely. To this white lock
Whistler took a great fancy, and it is visible in the
portraits and drawings he made of himself. His
hair was naturally very curly, — an inheritance from
his father, — and out of the mass of black curls the
white lock would spring with almost uncanny effect.
To the very end he was extremely fastidious in
his dress. In the days when threadbare coats were
a luxury he wore them spotlessly clean, and carried
old and worn garments in such a manner that they
appeared as if made for the occasion.
In his studio and while at work he was never
mussy or untidy ; he had more than a woman's
notion of neatness.
4i
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
He was not only very careful of his clothes, but
they must be buttoned and adjusted just so before
he would make his appearance. On him a frock
coat was never stiff and ungraceful, and somehow
he managed to dissipate the dreary formality of
evening dress. It was always a pleasure to see him
enter a room ; while on the street he was, in his
earlier London days, exceedingly picturesque.
He was very particular concerning his hats. In
the latter Paris days he always wore a most care-
fully-brushed silk hat with flat brim, — the Quartier-
Latin type. This, with his monocle — for on the street
he wore a monocle — and his long overcoat, made
him an exceedingly striking figure.
One day he was in a shop, trying on a hat, when
a dissatisfied customer rushed in, and, mistaking him
for some one in charge, said :
"I say, this 'at doesn't fit."
Eyeing him critically a moment, Whistler said :
" Neither does your coat."
Whistler was thoroughly imbued with the military
spirit ; and if he had not been a great artist he would
have made a good officer. He was born to com-
mand, and possessed physical courage of a high order.
In stature and physique he was short and very
slight, — could not have weighed more than one hun-
dred and thirty pounds ; but he was so perfectly
proportioned that one did not notice his size except
when in sharp contrast with others. Notwithstand-
ing his inferiority in size and strength, he never in
42
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
his life had the slightest hesitation in striking a man
— even at the risk of annihilation — if he deemed the
occasion required it.
A good many years ago the editor of a gossipy
sheet in London, called the Hazvk, printed some
items of a personal nature which Whistler resented.
Not knowing the editor by sight, Whistler took a
friend to point him out in the foyer of one of the
London theatres. Although the man was a giant
compared with Whistler, the latter, without a
moment's hesitation, went up to him and struck
him across the face with a cane, saying with each
blow, "Hawk, Hawk, Hawk."
The editor afterwards boasted that he imme-
diately knocked Whistler down. Whistler claimed
he slipped and fell ; but, he said :
' ' What difference does it make whether he knocked me
down or whether I slipped ? The fact is he was publicly
caned, and what happened afterwards could not offset the
publicity and nature of this chastisement. A gentleman
lightly strikes another in the face with a glove ; the bully
thinks the insult is wiped out if he knocks some one down —
the ethics of the prize ring ; but according to the older
notions the gentleman knows that the soft touch of the glove
cannot be effaced by a blow of the fist, — for if it could, supe-
riority in weight would render the cad and the bully immune.
The historical fact is that I publicly drew my cane across his
face ; no one cares anything about his subsequent ragings, or
whether I slipped and fell, or whether he trampled upon me. ' '
Again, when an artist went up to him in the
Hogarth Club in London and called him a liar and
a coward, Whistler promptly slapped his face.
43
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
So far as controversies with opponents were con-
cerned, he was courageous to the point of indiffer-
ence ; but, as already noted, in crossing busy streets
and making his way through the hurly-burly of city
life he was as careful, not to say timid, as a woman ; he
had many superstitions which influenced his actions.
One afternoon he said to a sitter :
" To-morrow, you know, we won't work."
"Why not?"
" Well, you see, it's Friday ; and last Friday, you
remember, what a bad time we had, — accomplished
nothing. An unlucky day anyway. We'll take a
holiday to-morrow."
The military spirit clung to him through life, and
he was ever in the habit of referring to his experi-
ence at West Point as if it were the one entirely
satisfactory episode in his career. He called him-
self a "West-Pointer," and insisted that the Academy
was the one institution in the country the superiority
of which to everything of its kind in the world was
universally admitted.
"Why, you know, West Point is America."
Though living in Paris at the time and the sym-
pathy of all France was with Spain, he lost no op-
portunity for upholding the United States in the war.
He could see no flaw in the attitude or the diplomacy
of this country, and was especially eloquent over the
treatment of Admiral Cervera after his defeat.
On the other hand, such was his ingrained dislike
for England that he lost no opportunity for declaiming
44
g)
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
against her war in South Africa. He delighted in
berating the English and in prodding any English
sympathizer who happened in his way.
One day a friend from this side, of Irish birth, but
who sided with England, was in his studio, and the
discussion waxed warm until the visitor said :
"I'll be dashed if I'll talk with you, Whistler.
What do you know about the matter? Nothing at all."
After a short silence, Whistler said :
" But, I say, C , do you remember how the
Boers whipped the Dublin Fusileers?"
Whereupon the air became sulphurous.
The friend afterwards remarked :
" There was nothing in the malicious innuendo
anyway, for, you know, those regiments are recruited
from all quarters, and there may not have been a single
Irishman in the Fusileers at the time of the fight."
Whistler held some extraordinary opinions con-
cerning the Dreyfus case, the outcome of his strong
military bias.
It did not matter to him whether the accused was
guilty or not, the prestige of the army must be main-
tained, even at the sacrifice of the innocent, — the view
which led the military section of France to such
violent extremes against Dreyfus, — and Whistler re-
sented the assaults upon the army as treachery to
the most sacred institution of the state.
To the civilian this military bias which leads men
in all countries to such extremes in judgments and
actions is incomprehensible. The attitude of the
45
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
military mind towards the ordinary problems of
life, towards the faults and failings of men, towards
petty transgressions and disobediences, towards rank,
routine, and discipline, towards the courtesies and
sympathies and affections which are the leavening
influences of life, cannot be understood by the lay
mind. The soldier's training and occupation are
such that he does not think, feel, and act as an ordi-
nary man ; his standards, convictions, and ethics are
fundamentally different ; so different that he requires
his own territory, his own laws, and his own tri-
bunals. With the soldier the maxim of ordinary
justice that it is better that ten guilty should go free
than one innocent be condemned is reversed.
By birth, by tradition, by association, Whistler
was thoroughly saturated with this spirit ; and it
affected his conduct and his attitude towards people
throughout his life. It accounts for much of the im-
patience, the arrogance, the intolerance, the combat-
iveness, the indifference to the feelings of others with
which he is charged, or rather overcharged, for much
of what is said is exaggeration.
No man can be reared in an atmosphere of au-
thority and blind obedience to authority without
losing something of that give-and-take spirit which
softens life's asperities.
Therefore, in any estimate of Whistler's character
and of his conduct towards others, the influence of
these very unusual early associations and conditions
must be taken into account and due allowance made.
46
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
///
An American — The Puritan Element — Attitude of
England and France — Racial and Universal
Qualities in Art — Art- Loving Nations.
Of Whistler's innate and aggressive Americanism
this is the place to speak.
English in origin, the family became Irish and
then American. In blood he was doubly removed
from England, first by Irish progenitors, then by
American, and in his entire make-up, physical and
intellectual, he was so absolutely un-English that to
the day of his death he was an object of curious
observation and wondering comment wherever he
went, in even so cosmopolitan a city as London.
There was nothing he loved better than to sur-
prise, mystify, confuse, and confound the stolid
Briton. And though he lived most of his life in
Chelsea and came back there to spend his last days,
he was from the very beginning and remained until
the end a stranger in a strange land, a solitary soul
in the midst of an uncongenial, unsympathetic, un-
appreciative, unloving people.
So little does England care for him or his art, or,
more truly, so prejudiced is the nation against him
as an impertinent interloper, who for more than a
47
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
generation disturbed the serenity of her art house-
hold, that the National Museum has no example of
his work. Needless to say, if he had been English,
or had come from the remotest of England's out-
lying possessions, English paperdom and English
officialdom would have claimed him as their own,
condoned his eccentricities, and bought his works
with liberal hand.
During the days of his greatest poverty and dis-
tress, when even France turned stupidly aside from
things she soon came to worship, and England was
jeering clumsily, and all nations repudiated him, —
our own the loudest of all, — he really seemed to be
"a man without a country," and, beyond question,
the injustice, the bitterness of it all entered deep
into his soul and remained. But whatever the folly,
the blindness, the stupidity of a country, though it
seek to cast off a child so brilliant he is not under-
stood, the ties remain ; however strained, they can-
not be broken. Nothing that America can do suf-
fices to make an Englishman or a Frenchman or a
German out of an American, — the man himself may
take on a foreign veneer, but beneath the surface he
belongs where blood and birth have placed him.
He was infinitely more of an American than thou-
sands who live at home and ape the manners of
Europe. He came from a line of ancestors so dis-
tinctively and aggressively American that he could
not have turned out otherwise had he tried.
48
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
He was not even an Anglo-American or a Franco-
American, but of all the types and races which go
to make the American people he was in blood, ap-
pearance, alertness, combativeness, wit, and a thou-
sand and one traits, an exceedingly refined illustra-
tion of the Irish- American ; and because of his Irish
blood, with perhaps some Scotch on his mother's
side, he was never in sympathy with anything Eng-
lish, but was now and then somewhat in sympathy
with many things French, though the points of
sympathetic contact were so slight and superficial
that he could not live contentedly for any length of
time in Paris. In his art, his convictions, and his
conventions he was altogether too profound, too
serious, too earnest — one might with truth say, too
puritanical — to find the atmosphere of Paris alto-
gether congenial. His great portraits might have
come from the studio of a Covenanter, but never
from a typical Paris atelier.
The Puritan element which is to be found in every
American achievement, whether in war, in art, or in
literature, though often deeply hidden, is conspicu-
ous in Whistler's work, though he himself would
probably have been the first to deny it ; and it is
this element of sobriety, of steadfastness, of unde-
viating adherence to convictions and ideals that
constitutes the firm foundation of his art, of his
many brilliant and beautiful superstructures of
fancy.
i Only a Puritan at heart could have painted the
4 49
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
"Carlyle," "His Mother,'' and that wonderful child
portrait, " Miss Alexander."
Only a Puritan at heart could have painted the
mystery of night with all his tender, loving, religious
sympathy.
Only a Puritan at heart could have exhibited as
he did in everything he touched those infinitely pre-
cious qualities of reserve, of delicacy, of refinement,
which are the conspicuous characteristics of his work. [ £<k>£
Concerning his refinement some one has very truly
remarked :
' " He so hated everything ugly or unclean that, even in the
club smoking-rooms (wfeere one may-sometimes hear rather
Rabelaisian tales), he never told a story which could not have
been repeated in the presence of modest women. His per-
sonal daintiness was extreme^ Threadbare coats on him
were never shabby. He had to wear too many threadbare
garments, poor fellow ! for, inasmuch as he put the integrity
of his art before everything else, he never stooped to make
those ' pretty' things which would have brought him a for-
tune, without ^oubt^. 7 He was abstemious in his living,
^simple lhall that he did, — his exquisite, sure taste preventing
him from extremes, gaudiness, or untidiness."
And when he lent his support, some eight years
ago, to the school kept by Carmen Rossi, who as a
child had been one of his models, he would not tol-
erate the study of the nude by mixed classes, and,
in fact, introduced many rules and restrictions which
were considered by even American pupils as ''puri-
tanical" in the extreme, and which the French could
not understand at all.
50
HARMONY IN GRAY AND GREEN
PORTRAIT OF MISS ALEXANDER
naaao oka yaho m *woi
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
He never painted any large and aggressive nudes,
such as abound in French art, such as, in a way, may
be said to characterize French art and mark its atti-
tude towards life ; but he made many drawings in
water-color and pastel, and painted some oils, all,
however, exquisitely refined, the element of the
nude being in every instance subordinated to the
artistic scheme and intention. Many of these draw-
ings have never been exhibited. When seen they
will go far towards demonstrating the puritanical
element in Whistler.
In his intolerance towards the methods, convic-
tions, and ideals of others he exhibited some of the
spirit of the Puritan zealot who knows no creed but
his own.
Concerning his Americanism, one who knew him
says : 1
"Upon the known facts of Whistler's career I do not
touch. I wish only to underline his Americanism, and
to offer you one or two personal memories. He was ' an
American of the Americans,' say the American papers, and
who shall venture to dispute their dictum ? Not I, certainly.
Nor would anybody who knew Whistler personally. I knew
him for many years in London and in Paris. I have many
letters from him on art and other matters, some of which
ought to be printed, for his letters to friends were not less
works of art than those which he composed more carefully
for print. I have books and drawings which he gave me.
I mention these things as evidence that I may fairly say
something about him, at least on the personal side. And I
1 G. W. Smalley, in the London Times.
5i
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
knew on what terms he lived with the so-called art world in
England, and what his own view of the matter was."
And an English writer said, some ten years ago i 1
" It should not be forgotten in America that Mr. Whistler
is an American of Americans. It may therefore be appro-
priately asked, What has America done for him ? It has
treated him with — if possible — even more ignorance than
England ; this, of course, coming from the desire of the
Anglomaniac to out-English the English."
And there are others whose testimony will be
forthcoming some day to show how wholly and
absolutely American he was to the very core and
centre of his being, and in his attitude towards all
countries and peoples of Europe.
It is true he said many harsh, bitter, and cutting
things concerning the press and people of this coun-
try, that he frequently exhibited in the English sec-
tions of art exhibitions in preference to those of his
own country ; but for all these things there were
many good reasons, and we have but ourselves to
blame.
He was so much of an American that a single
word of ridicule from this side cut deeper than
pages of abuse from the other. To the scoffings of
England he turned a careless ear, and replied with
flippant, but pointed, tongue ; while the utter lack
of support and appreciation from his own country
was ever referred to with a bitterness that betrayed
1 The Nation, vol. liv., pp. 280-281, April 14, 1892.
52
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
his real feelings. He could not understand how the
American people could desert a countryman bat-
tling alone against all England. As he frequently
said :
" It did not matter whether I was in the right or
in the wrong, — I was one against the mob. Why did
America take the side of the mob, — and — and get
whipped ?"
America was blind to his merits until long after
he achieved fame in every country of Europe ; and
it is undeniably true that the press here truculently
echoed the slurs of the critics on the other side
throughout that long period of controversy. It is a
lamentable fact that up to the day of his death he
was misunderstood, or accepted as an eccentric in
many quarters of the land that now claims him as
her bright particular star in the firmament of art.
Notwithstanding all these things, he remained so
conspicuously an American that every Englishman
and every Frenchman with whom he came in con-
tact recognized him as a foreigner ; neither would
have thought of mistaking him for a fellow-country-
man ; he was as un-English and un-French as an
Italian, or a Spaniard, or — better — as an American.
The "White Girl" was rejected at the Salon in
1863 ; the " Portrait of my Mother" was accepted
by the Royal Academy and obscurely hung in 1871,
only after a bitter discussion, in which the one mem-
ber of the committee who favored it, Sir William
53
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
Boxall, a friend of Whistler's family, threatened to
resign unless it was accepted.
This same great portrait — it is said on good au-
thority — was offered in New York for twelve hundred
dollars and found no buyer.
When exhibited in London, language failed to
express the full measure of the scorn and contempt
the English press — from the ponderous Times down
to the most insignificant fly-sheet — had for this won-
derful picture ; but no sooner had the French gov-
ernment purchased it for the Luxembourg than all
was changed, and with delightful effrontery the
Illustrated London News said :
" Modern British (!) art will now be represented
in the National Gallery of the Luxembourg by
one of the finest paintings due to the brush of an
English (!) artist, — namely, Mr. Whistler's portrait
of his mother."
The italics and exclamation marks are Whistler's
own, and his denial of British complicity is complete.
Aside from Whistler's personality, his art finds its
only congenial place in the midst of American art.
That his pictures will not hang in any conceivable
exhibition of British art without the incongruity
being painfully perceptible goes without saying, and
none knows this better than English painters them-
selves.
Of all the various manifestations of art with which
Whistler's has come in sharp contrast, English paint-
ing has been the slowest and most stubborn in yield-
54
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
ing to influences from the far East ; whereas of all
painters of the nineteenth century Whistler was the
very first to recognize the wondrous qualities of
Chinese and Japanese art and absorb what those
countries had to teach concerning line and color ;
and in so far as the painters of England, and more
conspicuously those of Scotland, have learned aught
of the subtleties and refinements of the East, they
have learned it through Whistler, and not direct.
In other words, Whistler has been absolutely im-
mune to English influences ; there is not the faintest
trace in any of his works, etchings, lithographs, or
paintings. In temperament, mood, fancy, and im-
agination, in what he saw and the manner that he
painted it, he was as far removed from any " English
School" as Hokusai himself.
On the other hand, England for some time has not
been immune to his influence, and things after — a
long way after — Whistler appear at every exhibition.
What is known as the " Glasgow School" — that body
of able and progressive painters — long ago frankly
accepted him as master.
Of English painters dead and living he had a
poor — possibly too poor — opinion. He frequently
said, " England never produced but one painter,
and that was Hogarth." In mellower moments he
would say not unkind things of certain qualities in
other men ; towards the living painters who appre-
ciated his art he was oftentimes generous in the be-
stowal of praise. But it was impossible for Whistler
to say a thing was good if he did not think so ; and
55
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
he would exercise all his ingenuity to get out of
expressing an opinion when he knew his real opinion
would hurt the feelings of a friend. Towards stran-
gers and enemies he was often almost brutal in
condemning what was bad, — as when a rich man took
him over his new house, dwelling with pride and
enthusiasm on this extraordinary feature and that,
at each of which Whistler would exclaim, " Amazing,
amazing !" until at the end of their tour of the
rooms and halls, he at last said, "Amazing, — and
there's no excuse for it !"
Of his attitude towards others a friendly writer
said : *
" He was not a devotee of Turner, but he yielded to no
man in appreciation of certain of the works of that painter.
He was not lavish of praise where his contemporaries were
concerned. Though he could say pleasant things about
them in a rather vague way, — calling some young painter ' a
good fellow,' and so on, — words of explicit admiration he
did not promiscuously bestow. The truth is, there was an
immense amount of stuff which he saw in the exhibitions
which he frankly detested. Yet conversation with him did
not leave the impression that he was a man grudging of
praise. It was rather that a picture had to be exceptionally
good to excite his emotions. One point is significant. It
was not the flashy and popular painter that he invited to
share in the gatherings for which his Paris studio was noted :
it was the painter like Puvis de Chavannes, the man who had
greatness in him."
New York Tribune, July 26, 1903.
56
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
That he had nothing in common with English art,
the English were quick to assert, until his fame made
him a desirable acquisition, when on this side, and
that within the last few years, a disposition to claim
him — very much as the business-like empire seizes
desirable territory here and there about the globe —
has begun to show itself; and, unless America is alert,
Whistler will yet appear in the National Gallery as
— to quote again the words of the Illustrated News
— "An English artist."
As regards the French, they are disposed to claim
Whistler on three grounds :
First. That he was a student there, — with a mas-
ter who taught him nothing.
Second. That France acknowledged his genius
by the purchase of the portrait of his mother, —
twenty years after it was painted, and seven after it
was exhibited in Paris.
Third. That he lived for a time in Paris.
Three reasons which would annex to France about
every American artist of note, for most of them (i)
studied in France, (2) are represented in the Luxem-
bourg, and (3) have lived in Paris much longer than
Whistler.
As for those first few years in Paris, even the
French concede that Gleyre was entirely without
influence upon Whistler's subsequent career.
As regards the recognition of his genius, France
was exceedingly slow. The portrait of his mother
57
V
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
was exhibited in London in 1871, and purchased
for the Luxembourg in 1891, though it had been
awarded a medal at the Salon some seven years
before.
France no more taught Whistler to paint than it
taught him to etch. His masters were older and
greater than the art of France. Before he was
twenty-five he had absorbed all and rejected most
that France had to teach. At twenty-eight he
painted a picture which, scorned by the Salon,
startled all who visited the " Salon des Refuses,"
and then — still under thirty — he shook the dust of
France from his feet, obliterated every vestige of
her influence from his art, and started out to make
his way alone and unaided in the domain of the
beautiful.
In 1865 he again stirred the critics with that
novel creation of color "The Princess of the Land
of Porcelain." Nothing of the kind had ever been
seen in either French or any other art. It was the
application of Western methods to Eastern motives ;
it was plainly a study primarily in color, secondarily
in line, not at all in character. It was the first great
step taken by the Western world towards abstract art.
"The Princess of the Land of Porcelain," the
" Lange Leizen," the "Gold Screen," the "Bal-
cony" — all early pictures — are all one and the same
in motive ; they are his first attempts in a large way
to produce color harmonies, to subordinate every-
thing to the color composition.
58
THE LANGE LEIZEN — OF THE SIX MARKS — PURPLE AND ROSE
a«joH tt'/iA a.riHjq — e>i >i /. i/: /\< hut *o — uaxisj aoviAJ 3ht
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
Of Whistler and American art in those days an
unnamed correspondent has written from Paris : l
" It would puzzle the analysis of a competent critic to find
what Whistler owed to Gleyre ; and the young American
openly professed to have profited by the counter example of
Gustave Courbet, who was the realist of that day. From
the first triumph of Courbet in 1849, Gleyre had shrunk back
into his shell and no longer exhibited at the annual salons.
' ' From the start Whistler was an independent ; and when,
after six years of work in the studios, he offered a picture for
the judgment of the official Salon, the jury promptly refused
it. Whistler was not discouraged, and hung the painting in
the outlaws' Salon des Refuses. It created a stir that was
almost enthusiasm, and the name of his ' Fille Blanche' —
White Maiden — was still remembered when four years later
a few American painters demanded a section for their work
at the Universal Exposition of 1867. I have looked up a
criticism of the time, and imagine it will be found more in-
teresting now than when it was written.
« ' ' The United States of America are surely a great
country and the North Americans a great people, but what
little artists they are ! The big daubs which they exhibit,
under pretence of "Blue Mountains," "Niagara Falls,"
"Genesee Plain," or " Rain in the Tropics," show as much
childish arrogance as boyish ignorance. People say that
these loud placards are sold for crazy prices in Philadelphia
or Boston. I am willing to believe it, but I cannot rejoice
at it. '
" This is laid on with no light brush, and some of us can
recall the American painters of that remote age who were so
mishandled. But the remaining paragraph of the lines
given to American art may surprise those who look on
Whistler as only a contemporary.
1 New York Evening Post, August 1, 1903.
59
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
" ' M. Whistler seems to me the only American artist
really worthy of attention ; he is our old acquaintance of the
Salon des Refuses of 1863, where his "Fille Blanche" had a
suces d 1 engouement (a success of infatuation !). He is truly
an American, as understood by the motto, "time is money."
M. Whistler so well knows the value of time that he scarcely
stops at the small points of execution ; the impression seized
as it flies and fixed as soon as possible in swift strokes, with
a galloping brush — such is the artist and such, too, is the
man.'
"Velasquez was already in the air, but Japanese art, to
which Whistler afterwards allowed himself to be thought in-
debted, was not yet spoken of. Thus the young American
artist was the precursor of movements which years after-
wards came to a head, and which for the most part he has
outlived. In view of this, the closing verdict of the official
critic of 1867 is worth noting, the more so as it shows the
reward already attributed to the American's industry in
another branch of art. ' While waiting for M. Whistler to
become a painter in the sense which old Europe still attaches
to the word, he is already an etcher {aquafortist V), all fire
and color, and very worthy of attention, even if he had only
this claim to it.'
Before France cared very much for Velasquez,
before it so much as knew there was an island called
Japan on the art map, Whistler was playing with
the blacks and grays of the master of Madrid and
with the blues and silvery whites of the porcelains
of the Orient.
And it was he, — Whistler, — the American, who
turned the face of France towards the East, and
made her see things in line and color her most
vagrant fancy had never before conceived.
Searching the shops of Amsterdam, he found the
60
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
blue-and-white china which gave him inspiration to
do those things beside which the finest art of France
is crude and barbaric.
Not very long ago a French writer said, " There
is not, as yet, an American school of painting, but
there are already many American painters, and great
ones, who will in time form a school."
Let us hope not.
A friend — a painter — once called Whistler's atten-
tion to several veiy good things by Alfred Stevens.
Whistler looked at them a moment, then said,
"School, school, school," and turned away.
In that, or any other restrictive or regulative sense
of the word, let us hope there will be no "American
school ;" but so long as there are American paint-
ers there will be American paintings ; and the greater
the work the more completely will it reflect the man,
and the greater the man the more surely and subtly
will it reflect his nationality.
The phrase "American painters" means some-
thing more than Americans who paint, and " Ameri-
can paintings" implies the transmission to the work
of something of the painter's individuality, which in-
cludes as an important element his racial and national
characteristics.
In other words, American painters, regardless of
where they are trained, where they work, and what
they paint, must produce American paintings ; they
cannot wholly eliminate their individuality and na-
tionality ; they cannot become so completely French
6,
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
or English as to absolutely obliterate every trace of
their American origin, and their works, though Eng-
lish, French, or Italian to the last degree, will still
exhibit traces of American origin. So true is this,
that the paintings of men who have lived longest
abroad and tried hardest to paint after the manner
of others find their most congenial surroundings
amidst American art.
So long as we have American paintings we shall
have an American "school" in the sense that all
American paintings taken together, whether few or
many, whether good or bad, will be distinguished
and distinguishable from the paintings of every other
country. In that sense America has, and always has
had, a "school" of painting, though for a long time
the school was little more than a kindergarten.
America has no centre like Paris, or Rome, or
Florence, where a large body of men and women
are gathered from the four quarters of the globe to
study art. In that sense America has no "school ;"
but that sort of a " school" is about the worst thing
that can happen to a country. These great centres
for the diffusion of art are usually fatal to the devel-
opment of native art ; the presence of a horde of
foreigners, each with his own peculiarities and char-
acteristics, some with the effeminacy of the South,
others with the brutal force and overpowering virilty
of the North, stifles national initiative and produces
sterile cosmopolites.
Paris, with its salons, exhibitions, competitions,
62
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
medals, prizes, and innumerable incentives towards
commercial, blatant, and vicious art, is the curse of
French art, and pretty soon France will have no art
that is really hers.
The atmosphere of Paris is one of strenuous
striving after effect, of mighty endeavor to make an
impression ; it encourages facility, dash, bravura,
eccentricities, and experiments of all kinds. From
the depths of our hearts let us be thankful that
America has no "school" of that kind, and earn-
estly hope that American artists residing tempora-
rily within that atmosphere will be affected as little
as was Whistler.
Paris is an aesthetic Babel.
The art of Greece was suffocated when the entire
coast-line of the Mediterranean came to study the
Acropolis.
Turning to the entire body of American painters,
at home and abroad, we find that they constitute at
the present day the one "school" that has already
given to the world the greatest artist since the days
of Rembrandt and Velasquez, — and greater than
either in some respects, as we shall see, — and also
the greatest of living portrait-painters, not to men-
tion a half-dozen more who are recognized inter-
nationally as masters in their chosen fields ; the
one "school" that contains more of sobriety, more
of sanity, more of youthful vigor and virility, more
of indomitable energy and perseverance, more of
promise and assurance of mighty achievement than
63
\
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
all the schools of all the other nations taken to-
gether.
If the world is destined to see the modern equiv-
alent of ancient Athens, it will be somewhere within
the confines of North America.
The countries of the Old World have had their
opportunities, and the tide of progress in its circuit
of the globe is already lapping the shores of the
Western continent.
In temperament the typical American lies about
midway between the stolidity of the Englishman
and the volatility of the Frenchman. He has much
of the dogged perseverance of the former, with a
large element of the facility and versatility of the
latter ; he is steadfast in the pursuit of his ideals,
and at the same time quick to adopt new and im-
proved methods for attaining his ends ; he has an
Englishman's tenacity of conviction and much of a
Frenchman's brilliancy of expression. As compared
with an Englishman the American appears more
than half French ; as compared with a French-
man he seems essentially English. It is this com-
bination of earnest convictions, profound belief in
self and country, sobriety, perseverance, tenacity of
purpose, stolid endurance, with inventiveness, origi-
nality, irresistible impulsiveness, dash and brilliancy
in execution, that assures to the future of North
America the noblest of human achievements.
For the present the strength and resources of the
country are absorbed in the production of wealth ;
but soon the people will tire of this pursuit, and the
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
accumulated wealth of nation, States, cities, and in-
dividuals will turn to the encouragement of things
beautiful in not only art and literature, but in the
long-neglected handicrafts, — the crafts that make
instead of destroying men.
At the World's Exposition of 1893, m Chicago,
Whistler's paintings hung, where they rightfully be-
longed, in the American section. Though far and
away superior to anything in the entire section, and
conspicuous above everything near for their exquisite
beauty, still it cannot be gainsaid that of all the sec-
tions of that exhibition the American was the only
one which would contain Whistler's work without
the contrast being so marked as to be absolutely
destructive. That they could not hang with entire
fitness among the English pictures even the English
would admit ; that their sober harmonies were dis-
tinctively at variance with the brilliant and super-
ficial qualities of the French pictures was apparent
to even the unpractised eye. "The Yellow Buskin"
and "The Fur Jacket," to mention no others, could
hang in only one place, and that was where they
were put, — in the main hall of the American section,
flanked and confronted by American work.
Not that the pictures about them equalled in
merit, — that is not the question ; but they were suf-
ficiently akin to constitute an harmonious environ-
ment.
Art is simply a mode of expression, and the
highest, truest, noblest art is the reflection of the
5 65
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
best there is in a people. It follows, therefore, that
the art of any race or people must exhibit the racial
characteristics. A painting, for instance, belongs
first to the man who painted it and bears on its
face so many marks of his individuality that not
only he but others recognize it as his. Secondly,
the painting belongs to the r^ce or people with
which the artist is identified, for the very traits
which distinguish him as an American, or an Eng-
lishman, or a Frenchman from all other nationalities
inevitably make themselves felt in the work, and
distinguish it not only specifically from all other
canvases, but generically from the work of other
peoples, schools, epochs, eras, etc.
A man may change his allegiance and live in
foreign lands, but he cannot change his blood. If a
Chinaman, he will remain a Chinaman, no matter
where he lives ; if an American, he will remain an
American, though, like many of our mess-of-pottage
citizens, he may remain a bastard American in the
endeavor to become an adopted Englishman.
The finer the art the more universal its qualities.
And yet there is no poem and no picture that is
absolutely without the marks of its master ; and the
marks of the master mean the marks of his race, —
in fact, the racial indications are inversely in number
to those of the individual ; the deeper a man buries
his personality in his work the stronger the indica-
tions of his race. Shakespeare so lost himself that
his personal characteristics nowhere appear in his
66
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
great plays, and a conception of the poet's person-
ality could not be formed from a reading of the
lines — so universal was his genius ; yet his poetry is
essentially and everlastingly English, — far more con-
spicuously English than the poetry of lesser men
who sing about England and things English. It is
more English than Chaucer, more English than
Spencer, more English than Browning, Tennyson,
or Swinburne ; it breathes more fully and more truly
the spirit of the English people in their greatest
days than any poetry ever uttered by the English
tongue.
The greater the man, the more completely does
he express his people. It takes a great race to pro-
duce a great man ; and once produced, he is ever-
lastingly linked with his tribe.
But greatness implies the suppression of the petty,
including all petty resemblances ; therefore, a man by
the universal qualities of his genius may seem to
belong to the world, whereas in truth he is but
the expression of the best there is in his country-
men.
Rembrandt suppressed all provincialisms and
seemed to etch and paint for mankind rather than
for a limited public in Holland ; and yet to the last
he was simply the greatest of Dutch artists. And
because he was so essentially and truly Dutch he is
one of the world's great artists ; in the chorus of
the world's proud voices there is no mistaking his
accent.
67
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
Velasquez is at the same time the least Spanish of
painters and the most Spanish of artists. Suppress-
ing all eccentricities of time and place, he rose to
universal heights, and the world claims him as its
own ; and yet his fame depends upon the fact that
he was from first to last a Spaniard, — a Spaniard in
precisely the sense that Cervantes was the expres-
sion of inarticulate forces behind him. Deriving
more or less help from his contemporaries, and from
this quarter and that, from the visit of Rubens and
from his own journey to Italy, he, after all, was the
achievement of the Spanish people in painting. He
was not an Italian, he was not a Frenchman, he was
not a Dutchman, — he was a Spaniard of the Span-
iards, as Shakespeare was an Englishman of the
English.
Having wandered far afield in the endeavor to
point out the intimate connection between, first, a
man and his work, — which connection every one
admits, — and, secondly, between the race and the
work, — a connection which is not so readily per-
ceived, — let us return to Whistler, whose work fur-
nishes proof positive of what has been said.
It is commonly taken for granted that if a man
lives and studies and works abroad for many years
he loses his individuality and becomes in some mys-
terous manner the offspring of the countiy where
he works. It is assumed that American painters
residing in Rome become more or less Italian ; that
those residing in Paris become more or less French ;
68
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
that those residing in London become more or less
English ; while those who move restlessly from place to
place become more or less of characterless cosmopo-
lites. All of which is true inversely to the real strength
and genius of the artist. A weak man is swerved by
this influence and that and — chameleon like — takes
on the hues of his surroundings, but a strong man
simply absorbs and assimilates without in the slight-
est degree losing his individuality. Unhappily,
many American artists residing abroad possess so
little stamina, so little of real character, so little of
genius, that they are — like topers — dependent upon
the daily stimulus afforded by the manifold art
activities about them ; they never get out of school,
but remain helplessly dependent upon teachers and
copy-books. The annual Salon, like a college com-
mencement day, is their great incentive ; their petty
exhibitions are so many field-days necessary to
sustain childish enthusiasm.
Happily, all do not yield to those influences, and
no two yield in precisely the same degree, — the ex-
tent to which individuality is lost depending upon
the weakness of the man. A poor, weak, wishy-
washy American quickly falls into the habit of paint-
ing pictures after the manner of those about him,
and his mannerisms out-Herod Herod ; others, with
more character, yield less to their environment ;
while the chosen few simply absorb whatever of
good they find, and without yielding a jot of their
individuality, without swerving to the right or to the
left, go on producing after their own fashion things
69
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
which belong to them and the race that produced
them.
For more than forty years Whistler was the con-
spicuous example of the last-named class, — a class
so small that it included besides himself — no others.
Great as certain of our American artists residing
abroad undoubtedly are, good as many of these
surely are, creditable on the whole as all are to
American art, there is not one whose work does not
betray the influences of his environment ; there is
not one who has not sacrificed something of his origi-
nality, something of his strength, something of his
native force and character on strange altars, saving
and excepting, always, Whistler.
The most that men have ventured to say is that
he was influenced by Velasquez, though he himself
has said he never visited Madrid, — a statement many
insist cannot be true ; others say he has been in-
fluenced by Japanese art, — but Velasquez and the art
of Japan are far from French or English art of the
nineteenth century ; and the assertion that he was
influenced by either is a confession that he lived un-
scathed amidst his surroundings.
Back of the art of Japan is the purer art of China ;
and to that source must we go if we seek the factors
that influenced Whistler, for he loved the porcelain
and pottery of China long before they were collected
by the museums and amateurs of Europe.
"When no one cared for it," he said, "I used to
find in Amsterdam the most beautiful blue-and-
70
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
white china. That was a good many years ago ; it
is all gone now."
Old Delft did not inspire him with any enthu-
siasm. " Crude, crude, crude."
This art of China, as reflected and elaborated in
that of Japan, influenced him, — of that there can be
no doubt, — and he recognized what was good in
Japanese art before others gave it any attention.
The art of Velasquez had its due weight, for he
loved the work of the Spanish master; and if he never
visited Madrid, perhaps it was because he feared
falling too much under its influence. But he went
frequently to the Louvre, and invariably to the
little " Infanta," which he would look at long and -4c
earnestly, and to Titian's "Man with the Glove,"
which was a favorite, and to certain Rembrandts,
and to Franz Hals, and a few, a very few others, —
the gems of the collection, — ignoring completely
the pictures which commonly attract, never once
glancing up at the huge canvases by Rubens and
his pupils ; in fact, so far as he was concerned the
walls might have been bare save for a half-dozen
masterpieces ; and these he really did love. There
was no mistaking his attitude towards them. It was
one of reverential affection. He appreciated a
really good thing, whether he or some one else had
done it, and he hated above everything sham and
pretence and foolish display. To him a picture the
size of one's hand, if well and conscientiously done,
was just as important as a full-length portrait.
The Italian masters influenced him, for he often
7i
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
spoke of them, of the wonderful effects they ob-
tained with such simple materials and such straight-
forward methods ; their mastery of color influenced
him, and he sought, so far as possible, to discover
the pigments and the methods they used.
Those are the factors which helped to make Whist-
ler, — the purest art ; he was not influenced by what
went on about him, or by what was said about him.
So little did he care what others were doing or how
they did it that his very brushes and pigments were
different ; and his methods were so peculiarly his own
that no one painted at all like him, and his fellow-
artists looked on in amazement.
The wave of impressionism which submerged all
Paris in the very midst of his career left him unaf-
fected, — for his art was an older and truer impres-
sionism, an impressionism that did not depend upon
the size of brushes or the consistency of pigments.
A visitor once said to him :
" Mr. Whistler, it seems to me you do not use
some of those very expensive and brilliant colors
which are in vogue nowadays."
"No." And he diligently worked away at his
palette. " I can't afford to, — they are so apt to
spoil the picture."
" But they are effective."
" For how long ? A year, or a score of years, per-
haps ; but who can tell what they will be a century
or five centuries hence. The old masters used sim-
ple pigments which they ground themselves. I try
7*
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
to use what they used. After all, it is not so much
what one uses as the way it is used."
Much of the foregoing argument concerning the
Americanism of Whistler and his art may seem to
be contradicted by his own express utterances.
For did he not say in his "Ten o'Clock" ?
" Listen ! There never was an artistic period."
" There never was an art-loving nation."
And he pointed out how the man who, " differing
from the rest," who " stayed by the tents with the
women and traced strange devices with a burnt stick
upon a gourd, . . . who took no joy in the ways of
his brethren, . . . who perceived in nature about
him curious curvings, as faces are seen in the fire,
this dreamer apart, was the first artist."
"And presently there came to this man another —
and, in time, others — of like nature, chosen by the
gods ; and so they worked together ; and soon they
fashioned, from the moistened earth, forms re-
sembling the gourd. And with the power of crea-
tion, the heirloom of the artist, presently they went
beyond the slovenly suggestion of nature, and the
first vase was born, in beautiful proportion."
And the toilers and the heroes were athirst, " and
all drank alike from the artist's goblets, fashioned
cunningly, taking no note the while of the crafts-
man's pride, and understanding not his glory in his
work ; drinking at the cup, not from choice, not from
a consciousness that it was beautiful, but because,
forsooth, there was no other !"
73
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
"And the people questioned not, and had nothing
to say in the matter."
" So Greece was in its splendor, and art reigned
supreme, — by force of fact, not by election, — and
there was no meddling by the outsider."
Again he says :
" The master stands in no relation to the moment
at which he occurs a monument of isolation, hinting
at sadness, having no part in the progress of his
fellow-men."
Those are the propositions which called out the
reply — positive and intemperate — from Swinburne, 1
and so estranged the two, and which to this day
have proved huge stumbling-blocks in the paths
of those who try to understand Whistler.
For the world does believe that there have been
"artistic periods," that there have been " art-loving
nations," that in some mysterious manner the master
does stand in " relation to the moment at which he
occurs."
And the world is right ; though it does not neces-
sarily follow that Whistler was wrong in the particu-
lar views he had in mind when he uttered his epi-
grammatic propositions.
In one sense it is undoubtedly true that the
master does seem to stand apart, " a mouument of
isolation," that he does seem to happen without any
causal connection with either parents or country,
1 Fortnightly Review, June, i!
74
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
time or place, — for who could have fortold the great-
ness of Shakespeare from an acquaintance with those
obscure individuals his father and mother, or from
a knowledge of Stratford and its environs? Who
could have predicted the triumphs of Napoleon
from a study of his Corsican forbears, or the strange
genius of Lincoln from his illiterate progenitors and
humble surroundings, or the elemental force of
Walt Whitman from his ancestry and American con-
ditions ?
No one ; and yet there is the profound conviction
that each of these men, like every great man, —
prophet, king, statesman warrior, poet, or painter, —
appeared, not miraculously, but as the inevitable
result of irresistible forces ; that the brilliant man
is, after all, the son of his parents and the child of
his times.
In the mystery of generation two stupidities fused
in the alembic of maternity produce a genius.
The occasion does not create, but calls forth its
master. Every war has its great general, every crisis
its great leader, and in the world of art great artists
respond to meet the requirements of the hour.
The bent of a nation determines the occupations
of her sons, — towards war and conquest, towards
peace and industry, towards things artistic or things
commercial, all as the case may be.
It is not the birth of the poet that turns the nation
from commerce to poetry ; it is rather the imper-
ceptible development of the nation itself in the direc-
75
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
tion of the ideal that calls into activity — not being —
the poet.
Neither race nor nation can by its fiat create a
poet ; but it can by its encouragement stimulate his
activity and rouse him to his best. It could not
create a Keats ; but it might have urged him on to
even greater heights than he attained, — for who can
doubt that his clear, pure crystalline song was stifled
for lack of appreciation ?
Now and then a genius, such as Carlyle, such as
Whistler, such as Whitman, asserts himself in spite
of all rebuffs, for each of these men pursued his
chosen path regardless of all revilings ; but, so sus-
ceptible is genius to encouragement and discourage-
ment, that, for the most part, it droops before the
withering blast of adverse criticism, and only those
of hearts so strong and wills so stubborn that op-
position inflames them to greater efforts make head-
way against the world.
It was no one genius that made the monuments
and literature of Greece, the art of China and
Japan, the paintings of Italy, the Gothic cathedrals
of France and England ; it was the demand for all
these things and their appreciation by those who
could not do them that called forth and encouraged
the doers.
The first artist may neglect the chase and the
field and remain by the tents idly tracing strange
designs upon gourds ; but unless those who till the
76
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
soil and bring in the food see his decorated gourds
and like them, and prefer them to the plain ones
which abound, and are willing to give him food and
shelter for his work, he will not remain by the tents
very long, and his artistic career will be foreshortened
by necessity.
But if the toilers and the hunters like the dec-
orated gourds, and the demand for them increases,
others of the tribe who have talent for designing
and decoration will join the master and imitate his
work, and every now and then a pupil will prove a
genius and surpass the '* first artist," and art will
grow and art-products will multiply, but only so
long as the rest of the tribe are willing to work and
toil and to exchange the necessaries of life for
paintings and carvings and pottery ; and the greater
the demand, the keener the desire of the people for
decorated things in preference to those that are
plain and cheap, the larger will be the chance of
uncovering now and then a genius, until, as with the
Greeks, the effective demand for things beautiful,
for poetry, music, painting, sculpture, and archi-
tecture, becomes so great that we have an artistic
people and an art-epoch, — that is to say, a people
that is only too glad to encourage and support a
large number of artists of every kind, and an era
when of a given population an unusually large per-
centage is devoted to the service of the beautiful.
The master does seem — as Whistler says — to come
unbidden ; but he will not remain long, and others
77
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
will not follow in his footsteps, unless he arouses at
least sufficient appreciation to give him life.
The future of art — of literature, of the drama,
and of all the handicrafts — in America depends not
upon the coming of a genius, but upon the growth
of an effective and irresistible demand for good
things ; when that demand is sufficiently imperative,
a Phidias, an Angelo, a Shakespeare will respond,
for genius is latent everywhere.
The sudden degradation of the arts in Japan within
the memory of man was not due to the disappear-
ance of the talent and genius which for nearly a
thousand years had been steadily — almost methodi-
cally — producing things beautiful, but it was due to
the suppression of the feudal system, of those great
lords who from the beginning had been the sure
patrons of art and supporters of artists, and to the
throwing open of ports to the commerce of the
world and the introduction of the commercial spirit.
The genius for the creation of beautiful things
remains, — for a people does not change in the
twinkling of an eye, — but the talent is no longer in
demand, or, in many cases, is diverted to the more
profitable pursuits of the hour.
7S
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
IV
Early Days in Paris and Venice — Etchings, Litho-
graphs, and Water-Colors — " Propositions" and
" Ten o'Clock"
After leaving the coast survey, Whistler went to
England, and thence to Paris in 1855, and entered
the studio of Charles Gabriel Gleyre, where he
remained two years.
Beyond the fact that Whistler was for a time in
his studio, Gleyre has not much claim on fame.
There could not have been anything in common be-
tween the master and his pupil, for he was academic
to the last degree. " Not even by a tour in the
East did he allow himself to be led away from the
classic manner ; and as the head of a great leading
studio he recognized it as the task of his life to hand
the traditions of the school of Ingres," whom Whist-
ler used to call a " Bourgeois Greek," "on to the
present." He "was a man of sound culture, who
during a sojourn in Italy, which lasted five years,
had examined Etruscan vases and Greek statues
with unintermittent zeal, studied the Italian classics,
and copied all Raphael. Having come back to
Paris, he never drew a line without having first
assured himself how Raphael would have pro-
ceeded."
However, there must have been a certain com-
79
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
bative streak in his character which did appeal to
Whistler, for in 1849 he quarreled with the Salon
over the success of Courbet, and thereafter sent his
pictures to Swiss exhibitions.
Whistler's first commission grew out of an ac-
quaintance made at West Point. At one of the
commencement festivities he met a charming young
girl, a Miss Sally Williams, and her father, Captain
Williams.
While a student in Paris, the pretty daughter and
the bluff old captain called on him, and the captain
said :
" Mr. Whistler, we are over here to see Paris, and
I want you to show us the pictures."
Nothing loath, Whistler took them to the Louvre,
and after they had walked a mile or two the captain
stopped before some pictures that pleased him and
asked :
" Do you suppose you could copy these pictures?"
" Possibly."
"Then, I wish you would copy this, and that,
and that," pointing out three paintings. "When
they are finished, deliver them to my agent, and he
will pay you your price."
Whistler made the copies, and received the first
money he ever earned with his brush.
One of these canvases, a copy of an Ingres,
turned up in New York a year or two ago. It bore
Whistler's signature, but was so atrocious — imagine
a combination of Ingres and Whistler — that even
80
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
the dealer doubted its authenticity ; but when a
photograph was shown Whistler, he recognized the
picture and told the story.
Of these early days many stories are told, but
they are all more or less apocryphal. It is as nat-
ural for stories to cluster about Whistler as for bar-
nacles to cling to a ship. He told so many good ones
that, as with Lincoln, innumerable good, bad, and
indifferent which he did not tell are attributed to
him, and thousands are told about him which have
slight foundations in fact.
It is well nigh impossible to sift the true from the
false, — a thing Whistler himself did not attempt, —
though it is possible to sift the wheat from the chafi^
the inane, insipid, and pointless from the bright and
crisp.
Any man can vouch for a story, but who can
vouch for a good story? The story-teller? Heaven
forbid ! By all the rules of evidence the testimony
of so interested a witness is inadmissible. The bet-
ter the story, the more doubtful its authenticity, —
its formal, its literal authenticity. The better the
teller, the more daring his liberties with prosaic de-
tails. A good story-teller is a lapidary who receives
his material in the rough and polishes it into a jewel
by removing three-fourths of its substance ; or, under
pressure of necessity, he deftly manufactures paste.
To be without stories is the story-teller's crime ; a
wit without witticisms is no wit at all, hence the
strain upon veracity.
6 81
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
Happily, the world conspires to help both wit and
story-teller by supplying during their lives, and in
great abundance after their deaths, stories and wit-
ticisms without end. Give a man the reputation of
being a humorist, and all he has to do is to sit dis-
creetly silent and watch his reputation grow. If he
really deserves his reputation, he may add to his
fame by fresh activities ; but if he is something of a
sham, as most wits are, he would better leave his
sayings to the imaginations of others.
Whistler's sense of humor was so keen, his wit so
sharp, his facility in epigram and clever sayings so
extraordinary, that what are genuinely his are better
than anything others have said about him ; therefore,
it is a pity some one has not jotted down first hand
some of the good things that constantly fell from his
lips. Perhaps some one has, and his life and sayings
will yet appear with all the marks of authority and
authenticity.
But his sharp and exceedingly terse sayings often
suffer greatly in the telling, frequently to the loss of
all point and character. The following instance is
in point :
A group of society women were once discussing
the graces and accomplishments of Frederic Leigh-
ton.
"So handsome."
" Plays divinely."
"Perfectly charming."
"Sings."
82
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
" And is so great a sculptor."
Whereupon Whistler, who was of the party, tim-
idly advanced the query :
" Paints a little, too, does he not?"
That is one version of an old and well-worn Whist-
ler anecdote, and other versions, which are at all
characteristic, do not vary in more than two or three
words.
See what the story becomes in the mouth of the
incompetent 1
"One evening a dozen of us were sitting in Broughton's
reception-room, waiting for our carriages to be announced,
and Whistler was sitting by himself on a lounge on the other
side of the room. We were discussing the versatile talents of
Frederic Leighton, one of the leading painters of England,
and afterwards president of the Royal Academy. One spoke
of his astonishing linguistic accomplishments : he could ex-
press himself in every European tongue and in several Ori-
ental ones. Another mentioned his distinguished merit as an
architect : he was building an addition to his studio which
was like a vision of Aladdin or Haroun Al Rashid. Another
called attention to his ability in sculpture : a group of an
athlete and a serpent was then exhibiting in the Academy,
which challenged the works of antique art. Another men-
tioned his talent as an orator : no man in London could
make a better after-dinner speech. Another praised his per-
sonal beauty and grace and his athletic prowess. At length
there fell a silence, because all of us had contributed his or
her mite of eulogy, — all of us, that is, with the exception of
Whistler, reclining on his elbow at the other side of the
room.
" By a common impulse we all glanced over at him : what
1 The Independent, November 2, 1899.
83
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
would he say ? He partly raised himself from his lolling
attitude and reached for his crush hat on the sofa. 'Yes,'
he added, slowly and judicially, as if benevolently confirming
all the praise we had poured forth ; and then, as if by an
after-thought, calling our attention to a singular fact not
generally known, 'Yes, and he can paint, too !' "
After all the verbosity, padding, and penny-a-
lining, the point is missed by attributing to Whistler
the positive averment that Leighton could paint.
Small wonder that the writer in the next para-
graph confesses :
"My own crude first attempts to understand Whistler's
paintings were dismal failures ; and of course I imagined that
the failure was in the painting, and not in myself. I could
see no beauty in them : the drawing was indeterminate ;
the colors were not pretty ; the pictures all seemed un-
finished."
It is less difficult than one would suppose to recall
things said by Whistler, for he would repeat a good
thing and was always polishing.
For instance, in his controversy with the critics he
originally said that "Ruskin's high-sounding, empty
things . . . flow of language that would, could he
hear it, give Titian the same shock of surprise that
was Balaam's when the first great critic proffered his
opinion."
A very literal correspondent wrote to the papers
that the "ass was right," and quoted the Bible in
proof.
Nothing daunted, Whistler acknowledged the hit,
saying, " But, I fancy, you will admit that this is the
84
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
only ass on record who ever did see the Angel of
the Lord, and that we are past the age of miracles."
Years after, in referring to the matter, he im-
proved his reply to, "But I fancy you will admit
that this is the only ass on record that ever was
right, and the age of miracles is past."
His love of epigram was so great that nothing
which was terse or pointed escaped his ears or
fled his memory.
One day, while lunching with a friend who knew
something about the habits and eccentricities of
good wine, Whistler was telling about the peculiari-
ties of Henry James, how James would drag a
slender incident through several pages until it was
exhausted, whereupon his friend casually remarked :
"The best of wine is spoiled by too small a spig-
got"
Immediately alert, Whistler said :
"What's that? what's that you said? Did you
get that out of Shakespeare?"
"Not at all ; it is simply a physical fact that if
you let good wine dribble through a small spiggot
you lose its fragrance and character."
"God bless me, but I believe you are right; and
it's a good saying, — it's James to a — drop."
No doubt there are many still living who knew
Whistler in those early Paris days, but if so, few
have so far made known their reminiscences. One
85
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
fellow-student describes one of the places where
they used to dine inexpensively as follows : l
" In Paris, in the fifties, there existed in the Rue de la
Michaudiere what appeared to be an ordinary Paris creamery.
In the front shop were sold milk, butter, and eggs. Over
the door was the usual painted tin coffee-pot, indicating that
caffe au lait, and eggs, butter, and rolls could be obtained in
the back room.
" The place was kept by Madame Busque, who had been
a governess in a private family in the south of France, and
having saved a little money, had come to Paris and opened
a creamery. The very day she opened her shop, Mr. Chase,
Paris correspondent of the New York Ti?nes, passing by, was
attracted by the clean look of the place, and stepped in for
his early breakfast of coffee and rolls. 2 The little back room
contained two round tables, and beyond was the kitchen with
the usual charcoal broiler and little furnaces. Chase was so
pleased that he came again, and getting acquainted with
Madame, who was well educated and very ladylike and
anxious to please, arranged for a dinner at 6. 30 for a party
of four. Everything was good and so well served that soon
she had a regular custom of American residents, — literary
men, artists, and students of all kinds, art, scientific, literary,
and medical, — and soon the place became famous. Ameri-
can dishes were introduced, — mince and pumpkin pies and
buckwheat cakes. It was not easy to reproduce these things
in Paris. The pumpkin pie was a trouble. Madame was
told how to make it by a man who only knew how it looked
and tasted, and who neglected to mention the crust ; and as
Madame had no knowledge of pies in general, she served the
first pumpkin pie as a soup in a tureen. Just at that time
came in a bright young woman, introduced by one of the
1 W. L. B. Jenney, in the Amer. Architect, January 1, 1898.
8 A correspondent writes that it was W. D. Huntingdon of
the Tribune.
86
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
habitues, who offered to come next forenoon and show
Madame Busque how to make a genuine Yankee pumpkin
pie, which she did ; and the pies produced in that little
creamery were famous and were sent out to Americans all
over Paris. Fine carriages, including that of the American
minister, to the amazement of the neighborhood, would call
for these pies to take home.
"Among the habitues was young Whistler, then an art
student. He was bright, original, and amusing, but gave at
that time no promise of any particular ability as an artist.
His drawing was careless. I remember one of his pictures,
— a woman seated at the piano, a little child playing on
the floor. The piano was so out of drawing that it looked
as if it were falling over. As students are always fond of
guying each other, one said to Whistler, ' Hurry and put a
fifth leg under that piano or it will fall and smash the baby.'
"One day, in the Luxembourg, Whistler had his easel in a
crowd with others. They were all at work making copies
from a famous picture that had just been added to the gal-
lery. Whistler would paint a bit, and then rush back to
contemplate what he had done. In one of these mad back-
ward rushes he struck a step-ladder on the top of which was
a painter. Over went step-ladder, painter, and all, and the
painter, trying to save himself, seized the top of his own
canvas and another, pulling them over, easels and all. One
knocked down another, and there was a great crash.
Whistler was in the midst, and his loud voice was heard, as
he sat on the floor, his head protruding through a big canvas
that had fallen on him, using expressions of a vigorous type.
He was seized by the guardian, because, as Whistler was
making the most noise, he assumed that the whole fuss was
due to him. This was quite correct ; but all the painters
coming to his rescue, telling the guardian that it was all an
accident, he let Whistler off.
" He organized a company of French negro minstrels,
writing the songs and stories, and gave a performance which
87
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
was very amusing. Among the habitues at Madame Busque's
was a student from the School of Mines, Vinton, afterwards
Professor of Mining at Columbia College, and during the war
a brigadier-general. He himself told me the following story
in 1866. One night in South Carolina an officer wandered
into his camp. He sent word to the general by the sergeant
of the guard that he was an officer who had lost his way,
that he asked permission to pass the rest of the night in his
camp, adding that he had known General Vinton when a
student in Paris. General Vinton sent for the officer, whom
he failed to recognize. After some thought he asked the
question, ' Who was the funniest man we knew in Paris ?'
'Whistler,' instantly answered the officer. 'All right,' says
Vinton ; ' take that empty cot ; you are no spy.' "
Among the students he knew in those days were
Degas, Ribot, and Fantin-Latour, whose work every
one knows.
Manet was working up to his best; in 1861 he
painted the " Child with a Sword," now in the
Metropolitan Museum in New York, and altogether
the atmosphere was charged with the strong sulphur
of revolution.
In England the pre-Raphaelites — old and new —
were turning the hands of time backward, in France
the Impressionists were pressing them forward, in
both countries the ferment of change was working.
When only twenty-four years of age, in 1858,
Whistler's first etchings appeared, published by
Delatre, with a dedication to Seymour Haden, his
brother-in-law. In those days the relations between
the two men were very cordial ; unhappily, not so
later, as may be seen in " Gentle Art."
IS*
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
One of Haden's best plates, " Battersea Beach,"
bears in its first state this inscription, " Old Chelsea,
Seymour Haden, 1863, out of Whistler's window,"
and another plate of the same year is entitled,
" Whistler's House, old Chelsea." l
Prior to the publication of the "French Set,"
Whistler had etched three plates, which are cata-
logued as 2
" Early Portrait of Whistler. A young man
bare-headed. An impression on which Whistler
wrote 'Early' Portrait of Self is in the Avery
collection in the Lenox Library, New York.
" Annie Haden. On the only impression known,
now in Aveiy collection, Lenox Library, Whistler
wrote, ' Very early ; most probably unique.'
"The Dutchman Holding His Glass. This is
signed 'J. W.,' and but two or three impressions
are in existence."
There must have been many other early attempts
before the " French Set" was formally undertaken,
and possibly other plates and prints will come to light
in the rigorous search that is sure to be made for
everything that he ever did. A plate made while
in the service of the coast survey is in existence, — a
headland embellished with vagrant heads and fig-
ures. Some of the prints are to be seen in collec-
tions.
1 Wedmore, Fine Prints, p. 103.
2 Wedmore' s Catalogue, pp. 19-20.
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
The " French Set" consisted of twelve plates and
an etched title, making thirteen plates in all.
But few copies of the set were printed, and the
original price was two guineas per copy.
It is, of course, quite impracticable to give a com-
plete list of Whistler's etchings, for three hundred
and seventy-two have been duly listed and described,
and it is altogether likely that this number will be
increased to over four hundred.
Whistler himself was very careless about keeping
either a set of proofs or anything like a memoran-
dum of what he had done. In fact, he did not
know what or how many etchings and lithographs
he had made or how many pictures he had painted.
Everything he did was so entirely the pleasure of
the moment, and each new work, whether large or
small, so completely absorbed him, that he quite
forgot the labor of yesterday.
All his life long he would begin things and throw
them aside, and he would finish things and throw
them aside also. To him the only hour of vital
import was the present. To the very last his work
shows the enthusiasm, the even more than youthful
impulsiveness, with which he would begin each new
undertaking.
He could never work at an etching, a lithograph,
or a painting one moment after it became drudgery;
he could never finish a thing simply because he had
begun it, or because some one thought it ought to
be finished ; hence endless misunderstandings with
sitters and patrons, who could not understand why
90
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
what they had bargained for should not be finished
and delivered.
No matter how hard at work on any subject, he
was instantly diverted by another which appealed
to him more ; and he would leave a sitter who was
to pay him a thousand guineas to sketch an Italian
urchin.
Unmethodical to the last degree in all his affairs,
always absorbed in what he had in hand, it is not
surprising that he kept little track of the things he
had done.
The first catalogue of his etchings was published
in London in 1874. It contained about eighty
etchings. In 1886 Mr. Frederick Wedmore cata-
logued two hundred and fourteen, and in 1899 in-
creased the number to two hundred and sixty-eight.
In 1902 a supplement 1 to Wedmore' s catalogue
brought the number of known prints up to three
hundred and seventy-two.
The " Thames Set," sixteen in number, did not
appear publicly as a "set" until 1871, though made
many years before ; and the very rare early impres-
sions made by Whistler himself are considered far
superior to the prints of 1871 and after.
In 1880 the Fine Arts Society issued the "First
Venice Set" of a dozen plates, and in 1886 Messrs.
Dowdeswell issued a set of twenty-six, known as the
"Twenty-six Etchings."
1 Printed by H. Wunderlich & Co., New York.
9i
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
One who knew him in his early Venice days gives
the following reminiscences : 1
' ' We were often invited to dine with Whistler, whose
apartment was on the next flight above. He came to our
rooms one day, and said, ' A , I would like you and
B to dine with me to-day. You have such a supply of
newspapers, please bring several with you, as I have neither
papers nor table-cloth, and they will answer the purpose
quite well.' I did as he requested, and surprised and
amused was our host when I called his attention to a column
and a half of ' Whistler stories ' in one of the Boston papers,
which was serving as our table-cloth.
"One day I called on Whistler when he was engaged in
decorating the interior of a house. He lay on his back on
the floor, and the handle of the brush was a fish-pole which
reached to the ceiling.
"Once a year, in the summer time, it is the custom of
Venetians to go to the Lido, a surf-bathing resort, to see the
sun rise. They leave in the evening, in gondolas, accompa-
nied with the inevitable mandolin and guitar, and some-
times with an upright piano. The excursionists make a
night of it, and Whistler was one of the number. Next day
he wished to make a study from our window, the approach
to the Grand Canal. Leaving him for a time by himself,
upon my return there was a striking study of the view on
the easel, and Whistler before the easel asleep. The brushes
had fallen from his grasp, and, well charged with fresh
paint, were resting in his lap. As he wore white duck
trousers, the effect can well be imagined.
"I have often heard him use the word 'pretty,' when
looking at a study that had no particular redeeming feature
to recommend it. Not wishing to wound the feelings of the
artist, he would remark, with that peculiar drawl of his,
'That is pretty, yes, very pretty.'
1 W. S. Adams, in the Springfield Republican.
92
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
" One day he called upon two students. On the wall was
the study of a child, most beautifully done by one of them.
Whistler stood before it for a long time in deep admiration,
and then, turning to the art student, said, ' That is away be-
yond yourself. ' Truly it was, for I called again a few days
afterwards, and the body attached to the beautiful head was
not worthy the brush of a five-years-old child. And I won-
dered how such incongruous things could be.
" Whistler was very loyal to his ' white lock ;' said it was
an inheritance in the family for several generations. He
wore a slouch hat ; and I have watched him on several occa-
sions, before the mirror, where he remained for a long time,
arranging it on his curly hair for the best effect before starting
for the Florian cafe.
"And this reminds me that he was in need sometimes of
the wherewithal to procure his coffee. So he called on me
for aid. It was amusing to me, for I had scarcely soldi to
pay for my own, and so I often went without. However, I
could well afford to pay for Whistler's coffee, inasmuch as he
was a fine linguist, and I called on him to assist me in the
battle I had with the padrona on two occasions. The mer-
cenary woman was completely nonplussed, for Whistler
waxed eloquent in the Italian tongue. There was no mis-
take, he was in dead earnest, for his gesticulations and ex-
cited tones of voice assured it, and my case was won.
" Tintoretto was his ideal artist among the old masters,
and he often spoke most highly of his productions, especially
'The Crucifixion.'
"In the line of pastels he was original, doing them on
ordinary wrapping-paper. They were simply beautiful. I
saw them in a London gallery a few months later, and they
were an inspiration ; so much so that he has had since many
imitators but no equals.
"On one occasion I had a demonstration. We set out
together on a sketching tour of the town. We came suddenly
upon a subject that was very rich in tone — a cooper-shop.
93
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
I lost no time getting to work. I threw my sketching-block
flat upon the pavement, and emptied the contents of my box
of water-colors upon it to get the tone quickly. The paper
being well saturated with water, made it an easy matter to
bring forth light from out the deep tone with strips of blotting-
paper. I was not aware of doing anything unusual until I
heard a ' Ha, ha, ha !' which has been called Whistler's
Satanic laugh.
" • What amuses you, Mr. Whistler ? Why do you laugh ?
Are you making fun of my sketch ?'
" ' Oh, no,' said he, with assurance. ' I am admiring the
ingenious way in which you work.'
"This to me was high praise, for it came from one who
rarely indulged in praise.
Another, speaking of the same period, says : l
' ' I first knew Mr. James McNeill Whistler many years
ago in Venice, when he was quite unknown to fame. He
had lodging at the top of an old palace in the uttermost parts
of the town, and many days he would breakfast, lunch, and
dine off nothing more nutritious than a plateful of polenta or
macaroni. He was just as witty, and gave himself just the
same outrageous but inoffensive airs as afterwards in the
days of his prosperity. He used to go about and do marvel-
lous etchings for which he could find no market, or else only
starvation prices. When he was absolutely obliged to, he
would sell them for what he could get ; but he never lost the
fullest confidence in his own powers ; and, whenever he
could, he preferred to keep them in the expectation — nay,
certainty — of being able to sell them some day at a high
figure.
' ' He used to go roaming about Venice in search of sub-
1 McClure s Magazine, vol. vii. p. 374.
94
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
jects for his etchings, and those who know all about it say
that the charm of his work lies quite as much in the choice
of subjects as in their execution. He used to make a great
deal of mystery about his etching expeditions, and was
rarely prevailed upon to let any one accompany him. If
he did, it was always under the strictest pledge of secrecy.
What was the use, he would ask, of his ferreting out some
wonderful old bridge or archway, and thinking of making it
immortal, if some second-rate painter-man were to come
after him and make it commonplace with his caricatures ?
On the other hand, if some friend of his discovered an ideal
spot, and asked what he thought of it, he would not scruple
for an instant to say, ' Come, now, this is all nonsense, your
trying to do this. It is much too good a subject to be wasted
on you. You'd better let me see what I can do with it.'
And he would be so charming about it, and take his own
superiority so completely for granted, that no one ever
dreamed of refusing him."
The story is told that a woman, some elderly
countess, moved into an apartment immediately
below him. By her noise, fussiness, and goings to
and fro she annoyed him very much, and Whistler
wished her out.
The weather was hot, and one day the countess
put a jar of goldfish on the balcony immediately
beneath his window. During her absence Whistler
tied a bent pin to a thread and caught the fish,
broiled them to a turn, and dropped them back.
Soon the countess returned, and on finding her
goldfish dead, there was a great commotion, and the
next day she packed up and left, saying that Venice
was altogether too hot, — the sun had cooked her
goldfish in their jar.
95
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
Of Whistler's etchings Seymour Haden once said
that if he had to part with his Rembrandts or his
Whistlers he would let the former go.
This collection of Haden' s came to this country
a few years ago.
An enthusiastic collector says :
' ' I should say of Mr. Whistler that he was an artistic
genius, whose etched work has not been surpassed by any
one, and equalled only by Rembrandt. Comparing the
etching of the two, it should be said of Rembrandt that he
chose greater subjects, — as, for instance, ' Christ Healing the
Sick* and ' The Crucifixion ;' in landscape ' The Three
Trees;' and in portraiture 'Jan Lutma,' ' Ephraim Bonus,'
and ' The Burgomaster Six.' It certainly cannot be said of
Whistler that he ever etched any plates such as the two first
mentioned. Though Rembrandt's etchings number, say; two
hundred and seventy plates, when a buyer has bought fifty,
he has, no matter how much money he may possess, all the
Rembrandts he wants. In other words, two hundred and
twenty plates are of little value.
' ' Whistler has catalogued three hundred and seventy-
two plates ; but it would not do to think of stopping the
buying of his prints with fifty, or twice that number, or any
other figures, indeed, short of them all. The difference be-
tween Rembrandt and Whistler might be expressed in this
way : Rembrandt etched many things whose technique was
not the best, whose subjects were abominable, and whose
work generally was far from pleasing. Whistler, on the
contrary, has never etched a plate that would not be a
delight to any connoisseur.
"I have fifty -five Rembrandts, and, with the exception
of half a dozen more, I have all that I want, or all that I
would buy, no matter how much money I had. Of Whist-
lers I have fifty-one, and I carry constantly in my pocket a
list of as many more that I would be glad to buy if I had the
96
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
chance. I can add that if I succeed in getting the others I
shall then want as many more.
"While Whistler has not equalled Rembrandt in some of
the great things, yet his average is very much higher. The
latter etched scores of plates that do his memory no honor ;
the former, on the contrary, has never etched one that will
not be remembered with pleasure. To etch a fine portrait
is the surest proof of the master ; the human face is the
grandest subject that any artist ever had. I have always
thought that Rembrandt's 'Jan Lutma' was the grand old
man of all etched portraiture, though it is hard to see in
what possible respect it surpasses ' The Engraver,' ' Becquet,'
' Drouet,' and other portraits by Whistler.
"Rembrandt's 'Three Trees,' in landscape, is a greater
plate than Whistler's 'Zaandam,' though the latter is well-
nigh perfection. I know no Rembrandt interior that ap-
proaches Whistler's 'Kitchen,' and I know no exteriors,
unless possibly a few by Meryon, that approach his ' Palaces,'
'The Doorway,' 'Two Doorways,' the 'Embroidered Cur-
tain,' and a score or two of others that are well known to all
lovers of black and white.
"This story was started on Whistler ten or twelve years
ago, and has been on its travels ever since : Some one asked
him which of his etchings he thought the best. His answer
was, 'All of them.' And he told the truth. Of plates that
he thought much of, when I saw him thirteen years ago, the
little ' Marie Loches,' which is another name for the Mayor's
residence, was hung over his desk, and I distinctly remem-
ber that the fine ' Pierrot, ' in the Amsterdam set, was also a
prime favorite of his. Later I have heard it said that the
portrait of 'Annie' he regarded as his finest figure piece."
In February, 1883, he exhibited in London, in the
rooms of the Fine Arts Society, fifty-one etchings
and dry-points.
It was, according to the placards, — and in reality,
7 97
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
— an "Arrangement in Yellow and White," for the
room was white, with yellow mouldings ; the frames
of the prints white, the chairs white, the ottomans
yellow ; the draperies were yellow, with white butter-
flies ; there were yellow flowers in iyellow Japanese
vases on the mantels ; and even the attendants were
clothed in white and yellow. As a French artist re-
marked, "It was a dream of yellow."
This, however, is how it struck some of the angry
critics, who were impaled in the catalogue :
"While Mr. Whistler's staring study in yellow and white
was open to the public we did not notice it, — for notice would
have been advertisement, and we did not choose to advertise
him.
" Of the arrangement in yellow and white, we note that it
was simply an insult to the visitors, — almost intolerable to
any one possessing an eye for color, which Mr. Whistler,
fortunately for him, does not, — and absolutely sickening (in
the strictest sense of the word) to those at all sensitive in
such matters. ' I feel sick and giddy in this hateful room,'
remarked a lady to us after she had been there but a few
minutes. Even the common cottage chairs, painted a coarse
yellow, did not solace the visitors ; and the ornaments on the
mantel-piece, something like old bottle-necks, only excited a
faint smile in the sickened company. ' ' ]
The sea-sick lady was probably an invention of
the writer.
Another, apparently somewhat less susceptible to
the " sickening" effects of yellow, simply says :
Knowledge, April 5, 1883, p. 208.
98
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
" Mr. Whistler has on view at the Fine Art Society's some
half-a-hundred etchings ; but it was not to see these only
that he invited his friends, and many fine people besides,
last Saturday. In the laudable effort for a new sensation,
he had been engaging in literature ; and a grave servant,
dressed in yellow and white (to suit the temporary decora-
tion of the walls during the show) pressed into the hands of
those who had come in all innocence to see the etchings a
pamphlet in which Mr. Whistler's arrangements had ex-
tended to an arrangement of critics." 1
The catalogue which stirred the ire of the critics
was an innocent little thing in brown-paper cover
containing a list of the prints ; but beneath each was
a line or two from the critics, and they were all there
in outspoken condemnation of the work of the man
who is now placed, by even the critics, on a plane
with Rembrandt. Some have since confessed their
errors in print and begged for the mantle of charity.
On the title-page appeared :
"Out of their own mouths shall ye judge them."
And here, as an example, is what he printed be-
neath "No. 51, Lagoon; Noon." In mercy the
names of the critics are omitted.
* ' Years ago James Whistler was a person of high promise. ' '
' ' What the art of Mr. Whistler yields is a tertium quid. ' '
' ' All of which gems, I am sincerely thankful to say, I
cannot appreciate."
"As we have hinted, the series does not represent any
Venice that we much care to remember ; for who wants to
1 The Academy, February 24, 1883, p. 139,
99
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
remember the degradation of what has been noble, the foul-
ness of what has been fair ?' '
" Disastrous failures."
" Failures that are complete and failures that are partial."
" A publicity rarely bestowed upon failures at all."
Whereupon Whistler brought the catalogue to a
close with these scriptural sentences :
"Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice
overtake us ; we wait for light, but behold obscurity ; for
brightness, but we walk in darkness."
' ' We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if
we had no eyes ; we stumble at noonday as in the night."
"We roar all, like bears."
Whistler's manner of arraigning his critics was his
own. No one else could compile such delightful bits
of literature as were those catalogues he issued from
time to time ; but the idea of publishing adverse
criticism with the work criticised was not new.
To his first edition of " Sartor Resartus" Carlyle —
Whistler's neighbor in Chelsea — printed as an ap-
pendix the letter of condemnation which Murray
the publisher received from his literary adviser and
which led to the rejection of the manuscript.
The scheme is not without advantages, — it amuses
the reader and confounds the critic, to which ends
books and paintings are created.
How the galled jades winced may be gathered
from the following mild comments :
" Mr. Whistler's catalogue, however, is our present game.
He takes for motto, ■ Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel ?'
ioo
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
But Mr. Whistler mistakes his vocation. He is no butterfly.
He might be compared, perhaps, to a bird, — the bird that
can sing but won't. If one judged, however, from some of
his etchings, one would say a spider was nearer his mark.
But a butterfly ! the emblem of all that is bright and beauti-
ful in form and color ! Daniel Lambert might as reason-
ably have taken the part of the Apothecary in ' Romeo and
Juliet,' or Julia Pastrana have essayed the role of Imogen.
"Criticism is powerless with him in many different ways.
It is powerless to correct his taste for wilfully drawing ill.
If a school-girl of ten showed such a picture of a human
being as this (referring to illustration), for instance, we might
criticise usefully enough. We might point out that no human
being (we suppose the thing is intended for a human being,
but it may be meant for a rag-bag) ever had such features or
such shape. But of what use would it be to tell Mr. Whist-
ler as much ? He knows it already, only he despises the
public so much that he thinks it will do well enough for them.
"Again, criticism is powerless to explain what was meant
by some such figure as this, in No. 33. The legs we can
especially answer for, while the appendages which come
where a horse has his feet and pasterns are perfect tran-
scripts — they are things we never could forget. We have
not the faintest idea what they really are. We would not
insult Mr. Whistler by supposing he tried to draw a horse
with the customary equine legs, and so failed as to produce
these marvels. Perhaps Dr. Wilson knows of some animal
limbed thus strangely.
"It is because of such insults as these to common sense
and common understanding, and from no ill-will we bear
him, that we refuse seriously to criticise such work as Mr.
Whistler has recently brought before the public. Whatever
in it is good adds to his offence, for it shows the offence to be
wilful, if not premeditated. ' ' 1
1 Knowledge, April 6, 1883, pp. 208, 209.
101
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
Poor etchings, — condemned for their virtues, con-
demned for their faults, — there is no health in them.
And these and many similar things were written,
only twenty years ago, of the greatest etchings the
world has known since the days of Rembrandt.
When one thinks of the obscurity of Rembrandt
to the day of his death, and how little his work was
known for long after, of the passing of Meryon with-
out recognition, it must be conceded that Whistler is
coming into his own amazingly fast.
Senefelder discovered the process, but Whistler
perfected the art of lithography. It was not until
1877, twenty years after he began etching, that he
made his first lithographs.
There had been many before him, but none like
him.
During the first half of the century the process
was in great vogue in France, and men like Ingres,
Millet, Corot, and Delacroix tried the facile stone.
One can readily understand how so fascinating a
process appealed to Whistler, and the wonder is that
he did not attempt it earlier.
The use of transfer-paper, whereby the artist is
enabled to make his drawing when and where he
pleases upon the paper, instead of being hampered
by the heavy stone, has greatly advanced the art,
though drawing on the stone possesses certain ad-
vantages and attractions over the paper.
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
Not many years ago Whistler was called as an
expert witness in a case which involved the ques-
tion whether the use of transfer-paper was lithog-
raphy. The result of the case is of no consequence.
While on the stand, he turned to the judge, and
said :
" May I be permitted to explain, my lord, to these
gentlemen (the jury) why we are all here?"
" Certainly not," answered the court ; "we are all
here because we cannot help it."
The witty ruling of the court deprived those
present of remarks which would have been not only
to the point but greatly amusing.
It was in this case that an artist who had written
many fine things about Whistler and his work ap-
peared as a witness on the other side, and in cross-
examining the great painter, counsel called attention
to one of the complimentary things that had been
written (" Mr. Whistler's almost nothings are price-
less"), and asked, "You don't dissent to that, do
you, Mr. Whistler?"
Whistler smiled, and replied, " It is very simple
and very proper that Mr. should say that sort
of a thing, but I attach no importance to it."
And it is really true that no man ever enjoyed
more having nice things said about his work, and no
man ever attributed less importance to either favor-
ble or unfavorable comments. He accepted both as
a matter of course and of no consequence ; neither
he nor his work was affected in the slightest
degree.
103
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
In 1896 he exhibited some seventy lithographs in
the rooms of the Fine Arts Society, and they were
a revelation of the possibilities of the process in the
hands of a master of line.
The Way catalogue, now out of print, contained
one hundred and thirty, purporting to cover those
printed down to and including 1896.
To this list must be added at least eight more
which are well known, and possibly others.
There are, therefore, in existence nearly four hun-
dred etchings and dry-points by Whistler, and prob-
ably not less than one hundred and fifty lithographs,
— a large volume of work for one man, even if he
produced nothing else.
Stress is here laid upon the mere volume of his
work to meet some remarkable views which have
been put forth concerning him and to correct the
popular impression that his controversies diverted
him from his art.
He was but sixty-nine when he died. His first
etchings appeared in 1 8 5 7-5 8. For the remainder of
his life he averaged twelve plates and lithographs a
year, — one a month ; and of this great number, it is
conceded by conservative experts, the percentage of
successful plates and stones is much larger than that
of any of his great predecessors. In fact, there are no
failures. Some of the plates were more sketchy and
of slighter importance than others, but every one
is the genuine expression of the artist's mood at the
moment of execution, and precious accordingly.
104
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
Not many years ago there was in a certain city an
exhibition of the slight but pretty work of a famous
French illustrator. By his grace, and especially by
his happy facility in the drawing of children in
checked frocks and gray or brown or blue stockings
and stubby shoes, the work attracted attention, and,
as always happens with the pretty and the novel,
aroused an enthusiasm quite out of proportion to its
real merit.
Two men fell into a dispute over the merits of the
little drawings, one siding with the throng and main-
taining they were great, the other insisting they
were simply pretty, — too pretty to be good and
really quite hard and mechanical in execution, — in
fact, quite inconsequential as art.
"Look," said he, "at this figure of a child. See
how the outline is painfully traced in black and then
the colors filled in as mechanically and methodically
as if a stencil had been used. What would a Jap
say to that?"
" He would say it is fine. It is Japanese in color
and motive."
" About as Japanese as a colored illustration in a
modern magazine." The discussion became heated.
Oddly enough, at that moment a Japanese expert,
who was crossing the country on his way to Europe
to catalogue some collections, entered the room, and
he was appealed to for his opinion of the drawing in
question. In broken English he said :
" It is — very — pretty, very pretty ; but — I not
know how you say it, — but it is what you call —
105
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
Spencerian, — yes, that is the name of the copy-
books — Spencerian writing, while a Japanese draw-
ing is the — autograph — that is the difference — the
autograph."
And that is the difference between some of the
work of even the great ones before him and what-
ever Whistler did, — everything he touched was his
autograph ; whereas with even Rembrandt there is
the feeling now and then, though seldom, of the set
purpose, of the determination to secure a certain
result, of the intention to do something for others.
Whistler never did anything for any one but himself.
He never touched needle or brush to please model,
sitter, or patron. Whenever the work in hand
ceased to amuse and interest him as a creation of his
own fancy, he dropped it. He could not work after
his interest had evaporated.
There is in existence a water-color 1 bearing
Whistler's signature on the back, and also this
endorsement : " From my window. This was his
first attempt at water-color. — E. W. Godwin."
It is a characteristic view of the Thames with Old
Battersea Bridge reaching almost from side to side.
In his pastels and water-colors, as in his etchings
and lithographs, he never forced a delicate medium
beyond its limitations.
Of all artists who ever lived, Whistler made the
least mystery of his art.
1 Owned by Frank Gair Macomber, Esq., of Boston.
1 06
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
He not only expressed his intentions fully in his
art, but also in unmistakable language.
In the first of his "Propositions," published many
years ago, he laid down certain fundamental prin-
ciples which controlled his use of etching, water-
color, and pastel, the first proposition being :
"That in art it is criminal to go beyond the
means used in its exercise."
And he defined the limits of the etcher's plate,
and by implication the dimensions of the water-
color and pastel — art's most fragile means.
In the famous "Propositions No. 2" he formu-
lated the principles which governed his work as a
painter, the first being :
"A picture is finished when all trace of the
means used to bring about the end has disap-
peared."
And the last :
"The masterpiece should appear as the flower to
the painter, — perfect in its bud as in its bloom, — with
no reason to explain its presence, no mission to ful-
fil, a joy to the artist, a delusion to the philanthro-
pist, a puzzle to the botanist, an accident of senti-
ment and alliteration to the literary man." l
These two sets of "Propositions," read in con-
nection with his one lecture, the "Ten o'Clock,"
which was delivered in London, February 20, 1885,
4
1 Gentle Art, p. 116.
107
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
at Cambridge, March 24, and Oxford, April 30,
contain his creed in art.
Many a painter has written books explanatory of
his art, but none has ever stated so plainly and so
tersely the principles which actually governed all he
did. Whistler was so epigrammatic in utterance
that he was not taken seriously, but accused of
paradox. But whoever reads what he has so
soberly and earnestly said will better understand his
work.
And whatever may be thought of reprinting entire
the " Gentle Art," there can be no question about
the great need of scattering broadcast the "Propo-
sitions" and the "Ten o' Clock."
108
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
V
Chelsea — The Royal Academy — "Portrait of His
Mother" — H Carlyle" — Grosvenor Gallery — The
" Peacock Room" — Concerning Exhibitions.
After — possibly because — his ''White Girl" was
rejected at the Salon, he went to London and made
his home at Chelsea, where he had as neighbors
Carlyle, Rossetti, George Eliot, and others of note
in art and literature.
Carlyle's description of Chelsea as it was in 1834,
when he and his wife moved there, is interesting, —
for the place changed little before Whistler came.
Writing to his wife concerning the house he had
found, Carlyle said :
"The street runs down upon the river, which I suppose
you might see by stretching out your head from the front
window, at a distance of fifty yards on the left. We are
called ' Cheyne Row' proper (pronounced Chainie Row), and
area 'genteel neighborhood;' two old ladies on one side,
unknown character on the other, but with ' pianos. ' The
street is flag pathed, sunk storied, iron railed, all old-fash-
ioned and tightly done up ; looks out on a rank of sturdy
old pollarded (that is, beheaded) lime-trees, standing there
like giants in tawtie wigs (for the new boughs are still
young) ; beyond this a high brick wall ; backwards a garden,
the size of our back one at Comely Bank, with trees, etc., in
bad culture ; beyond this green hayfields and tree avenues,
109
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
once a bishop's pleasure-grounds, an unpicturesque yet rather
cheerful outlook. The house itself is eminent, antique, wain-
scoted to the very ceiling, and has been all new painted and
repaired ; broadish stair with massive balustrade (in the old
style), corniced and as thick as one's thigh ; floors thick as a
rock, wood of them here and there worm-eaten, yet capable
of cleanness, and still with thrice the strength of a modern
floor. And then as to rooms, Goody ! Three stories beside
the sunk story, in every one of them three apartments, in
depth something like forty feet in all — a front dining-room
(marble chimney-piece, etc.), then a back dining-room or
breakfast-room, a little narrower by reason of the kitchen
stairs ; then out of this, and narrower still (to allow a back
window, you consider), a china-room or pantry, or I know
not what, all shelved and fit to hold crockery for the whole
street. Such is the ground area, which, of course, continues
to the top, and furnishes every bedroom with a dressing-
room or second bedroom ; on the whole a most massive,
roomy, sufficient old house, with places, for example, to
hang, say, three dozen hats or cloaks on, and as many
crevices and queer old presses and shelved closets (all tight
and new painted in their way) as would gratify the most
covetous Goody, — rent, thirty -five pounds ! I confess I am
strongly tempted. Chelsea is a singular heterogeneous kind
of spot, very dirty and confused in some places, quite beau-
tiful in others, abounding with antiquities and the traces of
great men, — Sir Thomas More, Steele, Smollett, etc. Our
row, which for the last three doors or so is a street, and none
of the noblest, runs out upon a ' Parade' (perhaps they call
it), running along the shore of the river, a broad highway
with huge shady trees, boats lying moored, and a smell of
shipping and tar. Battersea Bridge (of wood) a few yards
off ; the broad river, with white-trowsered, white-shirted Cock-
neys dashing by like arrows in thin, long canoes of boats ;
beyond, the green, beautiful knolls of Surrey, with their
villages, — on the whole a most artificial, green-painted, yet
no
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
lively, fresh, almost opera-looking business, such as you can
fancy. Finally, Chelsea abounds more than any place in
omnibi, and they take you to Coventry Street for sixpence.
Revolve all this in thy fancy and judgment, my child, and
see what thou canst make of it. " 1
Between Whistler and Rossetti there sprang up a
friendship that was singular, considering how dia-
metrically opposite they were to one another in
nearly everything. They had, however, this in
common, — each was in search of a degree of the
beautiful quite beyond the grasp of the ordinary
mortal ; but of the two, Whistler's is incomparably
the finer art, for it is the purer and more abstract,
while Rossetti's painting exhibited the literary bent
very conspicuously, — it was inextricably involved
with his poetry.
One day he showed Whistler a sketch which
Whistler liked, and he urged Rossetti to go on with
it ; but Rossetti became so infatuated with his con-
ception that instead of finishing the picture he wrote
a sonnet on the subject and read it to Whistler, who
said :
" Rossetti take out the picture and frame the
sonnet."
Life in Chelsea in those days had its drawbacks.
Whistler's utter lack of commercial instinct, his
dislike for the dealers, the habit he had of falling
out with any one who discussed money matters with
him, and that reluctance to part with pictures which
1 Life of Carlyle, First Forty Years, vol. ii., pp. 345-6.
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
was a conspicuous trait through life, often involved
him in trouble financially.
In 1879 E. W. Godwin designed and built for
him a house in Tite Street. It was of white brick,
and known as the " White House," and is described
as having been very artistic in so far as it was settled
and furnished, but for some time only two rooms
were in order. " Everywhere you encountered great
packing-cases full of pretty things, and saw prepara-
tions for papering and carpeting, but somehow or
other nothing ever got any forwarder. What was
done was perfect in its way. The white wainscoting,
the rich draperies, the rare Oriental china, the pic-
tures and their frames, the old silver, all had a charm
and a history of their own." *
His powers of persuasion were such that it is said
he once tamed a bailiff — temporarily in possession —
to a degree of docility little short of amazing, — a
favorite word of his.
" When the man first appeared he tried to wear his hat in
the drawing-room and smoke about the house. Whistler
soon settled that. He went out into the hall and fetched a
stick, and daintily knocked the man's hat off. The man
was so surprised that he forgot to be angry, and within a day
or two he had been trained to wait at table. One morning,
when Mr. Whistler was shaving, a message was brought up
that the man (he was always known in the house as ' the
man, ' as if he were the only one of his species) wanted to
speak to him.
1 McClure s Magazine, vol. vii. p. 374.
112
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
" 'Very well, send him up,' said Mr. Whistler. He went
on shaving, and when the man came in said, abruptly,
1 Now, then, what do you want ?'
" ' I want my money, sir.'
' ' * What money ?'
" ' My possession money, sir.'
" 'What, haven't they given it to you ?'
" ' No, sir ; it's you that have to give it to me.'
" ' Oh, the deuce I have !' And Mr. Whistler laughingly
gave him to understand that, if he wanted money, his only
chance was to apply elsewhere.
" 'Well, I think it's very hard, sir,' the man began to
snivel ; ' I have my own family to keep, and my own rent to
pay '
"'I'll tell you what I advise you to do,' Mr. Whistler
returned, as he gently pushed him out of the room : ' you
should do as I do, and have " a man" in your own house.'
"Soon after this the man came and said that if he was not
paid he would have to put bills up outside the house an-
nouncing a sale. And, sure enough, a few days after great
posters were stuck up all over the front of the house, an-
nouncing so many tables, and so many chairs, and so much
old Nankin china for sale on a given day. Mr. Whistler
enjoyed the joke hugely, and hastened to send out invita-
tions to all his friends to a luncheon-party, adding, as a post-
script, ' You will know the house by the bills of sale stuck
up outside.' And the bailiff proved an admirable butler,
and the party one of the merriest ever known. ' ' l
The " White House" was finally sold, and it is
said that when he moved out he wrote on the wall,
" Except the Lord build the house, their labor is in
vain that build it, — E. W. Godwin, R.S.A., built
this one."
1 McClure s Magazine, vol. vii. p. 374.
113
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
Speaking of architects, the story is told that he
was once dining, and dining well, at the house of a
friend in London. Towards the end of the dinner
he was obliged to leave the table and run up-stairs
to write a note. In a few moments a great noise
was heard in the hall, and Whistler was found to
have fallen down the stairs. "Who is your archi-
tect?" he asked. His host told him. "I might
have known it ; the teetotaler !"
By the irony of fate the "White House" was
afterwards occupied and much altered by the de-
tested critic of the Times, — detested possibly be-
cause he occupied and dared to alter the house, —
and Whistler asked :
"Shall the birthplace of art become the tomb
of its parasite?"
It was this critic who pronounced a water-color
drawing of Ruskin by Herkomer the best oil por-
trait the painter had ever done, — a mistake Whistler
never let the unlucky writer forget.
In those days he exhibited quite frequently at the
Royal Academy.
Among the earliest pictures exhibited was "At
the Piano." It attracted the attention of the Scotch
painter John Phillip, who wished to buy it. Whist-
ler left the price to him, and Phillip sent a check for
thirty guineas, which was entirely satisfactory, so far
as any one knows.
Thirty thousand dollars has already been paid for
one of his very early pictures, and for any one of a
114
ARRANGEMENT IN GRAY AND BLACK
PORTRAIT OF THE PAINTER'S MOTHER
XDAdU dVTA YAJIO WI TWIMaOHAMflA
M g'MHT^FAl 3HT HO TTA.MiH<>M
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
half-dozen of his important canvases a bid of fifty
thousand dollars may be had any day.
It is a question of only a few years when Whist-
ler's paintings will sell as high as Rembrandt's. The
great galleries of Europe have not yet entered the
field, and many of the great private collections have
no example of his work. A few Americans, but not
many out of the large number of those who buy
pictures regardless of cost, are already inquiring.
When all these factors come into competition, as
they will soon or late, prices will be realized that
will make the dearest of English or French painters
seem cheap.
In 1872 the portrait of his mother, an "Arrange-
ment in Gray and Black," was sent in to the Acad-
emy, and accepted only after a sharp controversy,
wherein Sir William Boxall, R.A., gave the com-
mittee their choice between hanging the picture and
accepting his own resignation as one of their num-
ber. "For," said he, "it shall never be told of me
that I served on a committee which refused such a
work as that." The picture was eventually placed
with the "black-and-white" exhibit, drawings, en-
gravings, etc., and apparently only the critics saw it.
What they said Whistler has himself recorded.
Somebody has asked, Suppose Whistler had been
taken up and made an A.R.A., and in due course an
R.A. — what then?
The thing is well-nigh inconceivable ; and even if
an A.R.A., his innate dislike for sham and preten-
115
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
sion in art and his sense of humor would have pre-
vented him from becoming a full-fledged academi-
cian in a body wherein, as in all similar bodies,
mutual appreciation, or at least mutual restraint
from honest depreciation, is essential to existence.
Whistler would probably have accepted the first
degree, the A.R.A., of the fraternity, — for all his life
he was personally, but not in his art, singularly sus-
ceptible to the praise of his fellow-men ; but he
would have remained in the Academy about as long
as he remained president of the British Society of
Painters, — just long enough to overturn things gen-
erally, and then get out.
Once, when taken to task for referring to a painter
who was only an A.R.A. as an R.A., he retorted that
it was a difference without distinction.
To the orthodox academicians his work was a
mystery. Once, when dining in a restaurant in the
West End, the waiter, having difficulty in supplying
Whistler's wants, said, "Well, sir, I can't quite make
out what you mean."
"Gad, sir," he cried, in tones of amazement, "are
you an R.A. ?"
It is not within the range of possibilities that the
Royal Academy, or any other institution, would have
had any perceptible influence on Whistler's art, — on
that side he was indifferent to the influences which
affect most men, to considerations of gain and
popular appreciation.
In the account of a certain public sale the state-
ment was printed that when one of his pictures was
116
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
put up it was loudly hissed. He sat down and wrote
the editor acknowledging the compliment, "the dis-
tinguished though unconscious compliment so pub-
licly paid. It is rare that recognition so complete is
made during the lifetime of the painter."
Another time he said, "There are those, they
tell me, who have the approval of the public, and
live."
Long after he ceased to exhibit at the Academy a
lady met him at one of the exhibitions, and ex-
pressed her surprise.
"Well, you know," he answered, "one must do
something to lend interest to the show, — so here I
am."
Years after, the Academy, while Leighton was
president, invited him to send some of his pictures,
and here is the account of what happened : l
" He was in Brussels. There came a telegram from him
to me which was a cry of exultation :
" ' My dear S. : The Lord hath delivered them into my
hands. I am sending you by post their last dying confession. '
"And so next morning the post duly brought a letter
from Whistler inclosing the official proposal from the Royal
Academy, signed by Mr. Eaton, secretary to that distin-
guished body, inviting Whistler to contribute to a loan exhi-
bition then presently to be held. Whistler wrote :
" ' Of course, I refuse. You know me too well to doubt
that. Do they think they can use me after so long trampling
on me? Do they think I don't see what they want? Do
1 G. W. Smalley, in the London Times. Reprinted in the
New York Tribune, August 19, 1903.
117
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
they think I need them ? At last they perceive that they
need me, but in the day of their extremity they shall ask in
vain.'
' ' I am quoting from memory, but I give the substance
accurately. He inclosed his answer to the Academy, long
since a public document, with permission to cable it if I liked
to America. I telegraphed Whistler begging him to send no
answer till my letter should reach him. He wired : ' I do
not understand, but I will wait till to-morrow.' I wrote to
him in the best ink, as Merimee said, at my command. I
tried to point out that the Academy had offered him the
amende honorable ; that their invitation was an acknowledg-
ment of their error, and was meant as an atonement ; that
if he sought to humiliate his enemies, no humiliation could
be so complete as their public surrender, of which the proof
would be the hanging of his works on their walls, and much
else which I thought obvious and conclusive. And I begged
him to remember that I had always thought him right, and
always said the world would come round to him, and that
now, as ever before, whether right or wrong, mine was the
counsel of a friend. The answer came by wire early next
morning : ' Alas, my dear S., that you too should have gone
over to the enemy !' I believe if I had but besought him to
consider that his acceptance would have been a service to
art, and if he could himself have thought that it would be,
he would have accepted. I never saw Whistler again, never
heard from him ; a friendship of twenty years came there
and then to an end — on his side. ' '
In 1 897 a circular was mailed to him, addressed,
"The Academy, England." At the post-office they
added "Burlington House," where it was declined.
Finally the circular reached him, bearing the en-
dorsement, "Not known at the R. A." He gave it
to the press, saying, " In these days of doubtful fre-
118
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
quentation, it is my rare good fortune to be able to
send you an unsolicited, official, and final certificate
of character."
The fact was, mail addressed simply " Whistler,
England," would reach him.
The Grosvenor Gallery, opened in 1877 by Sir
Coutts Lindsay, offered an opportunity to many a
man who either would not or could not exhibit at
the Academy.
It was here that some of Whistler's best things
were shown, — the portraits of Irving as Philip II. ;
Miss Rosa Corder ; Miss Gilchrist, the actress ; the
Carlyle ; Miss Alexander ; and Lady Archibald Camp-
bell, commonly known as "The Lady with the Yel-
low Buskin," and many of his famous nocturnes.
Whistler had a very peculiar laugh, — demoniacal
his enemies called it, — and it is said that while his
portrait was being painted, Irving caught this laugh
and used it with effect in the part of Mephistopheles,
— but then, who knows ?
The story of the painting and the naming of "The
Yellow Buskin" is worth repeating.
Lady Archibald Campbell was an exceedingly
handsome woman, and Whistler expressed the desire
to paint her portrait. She graciously consented,
and the sittings began.
In those days Whistler was looked upon in London
as little less than a mountebank in art, and one day,
putting it as nicely as she could, she said :
" My husband wished me to say that he — he ap-
119
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
predated the honor of your inviting me to sit for a
portrait, but that — that he did not wish to be un-
derstood as committing himself in any way, and the
picture must not be considered a commission."
" Dear me, no," said Whistler, as he painted away ;
" under no circumstances. Lord Archibald need give
himself no uneasiness, — my compensation is in your
condescension. We are doing this for the pleasure
there is in it."
The portrait was finished, exhibited as " La Dame
au Erode quin Jaune" — and duly ridiculed.
Lady Campbell's friends expressed surprise that
she should have permitted so eccentric an artist to
do so ugly a thing. But time went on ; the picture
made a profound sensation and won its way.
Some time after, Whistler met Lady Campbell in
London, and she said to him :
" My dear Mr. Whistler, I hear my portrait has
been exhibited everywhere and become famous."
"Sh — sh — sh !" with finger on lips. "So it has,
my dear Lady Archibald ; but every discretion has
been observed that Lord Campbell could desire, —
your name is not mentioned. The portrait is known
as 'The Yellow Buskin.'"
It is now in the Wilstach collection, in Philadel-
phia.
Whistler preferred to exhibit his work under con-
ditions which he controlled. As early as 1874 he
gave a special exhibition in London, and in the years
1880, 1881, 1883, 1884, and 1886 he exhibited
120
ARRANGEMENT IN BLACK
LA DAME AU BRODEQUINE JAUNE
H3AJH Kl TW3M3DtfA5lflA
awuAi amupaaoaa ua hmag aj
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
either prints or paintings in the rooms of the Fine
Arts Society.
He always occupied the place of honor with the
International Society at Knightsbridge.
Occasionally he would use the galleries of dealers,
but not often, and then only upon his own terms.
While living at Chelsea he had Carlyle as a near
neighbor, and of his own notion he painted the por-
trait that now hangs in Glasgow.
These two extraordinary beings were quite conge-
nial. The dogmatic old philosopher, then past sev-
enty-five, sat day after day to the eccentric painter,
who was nearly forty years his junior, as patiently as
if he were a professional model, and the sittings were
long and tedious.
One day, as he was leaving, quite exhausted, he
met at the door a little girl in white, and he asked
her name.
"I am Miss Alexander," she said, primly, " and I
am going to have my portrait painted."
The sage shook his head in commiseration, and
muttered, as he passed on :
" Puir lassie, puir lassie !"
If proof were required of the underlying sincerity
and earnestness of Whistler in those days when the
world refused to take him seriously, this long and
intimate association with Carlyle would be more than
sufficient.
They were neighbors. Carlyle had every oppor-
tunity of seeing Whistler on the street and in his
121
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
studio. Seemingly two beings could not be less
sympathetic, and yet the philosopher who had so
few good words for any one, who was the implacable
foe of sham and falsehood, who was intolerant of the
society of others, who cared little for art and less for
artists, freely gave his time and society to the most
unpopular painter in England.
In truth there was a good deal in common be-
tween the two, — in the attitude of the one towards
literature and what his fellow-writers were saying,
and in the attitude of the other towards art and what
his fellow-painters were doing. Each stood in his
own sphere for the highest ideals, and no doubt each
recognized in the other the quality of sincerity in his
profession.
Poor Carlyle ! your name should never be men-
tioned without an anathema for the scavengers who
dealt with your memory. If they are not suffering
the torments of the damned, the mills of the gods
have ceased to turn.
Froude prefaced the Life of Carlyle with a long
protestation that it contained the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth ; which, it seems,
according to even his notions, was a lie ; for in the
secrecy of his closet he prepared a pamphlet con-
taining the revelations of the Jewsbury creature, —
the expert opinion of "an ill-natured old maid," as
Mrs. Carlyle called her, — to the effect that Carlyle
should never have married ; and this pamphlet, con-
taining the salacious tittle-tattle between himself and
ARRANGEMENT IN GRAY AND BLACK
PORTRAIT OF THOMAS CARLYLE
HDAdB a*>. YA*0 HI I / 11/ 1LMAHJIA
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OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
this old maid, is given the world as presumably his
last instalment of revelations, though no one knows
how much similar stuff the Jewsbury creature, a
romancer by profession, may have left pigeon-holed
for still further harm.
And the answer to it all is that Carlyle, in spite
of the old maid's opinion, was married ; and what
is more to the point, remained married forty years,
with no more of differences and dissensions, even
accepting all the Froude-Jewsbury tattle, than any
good wife will have with any good Scotchman ; and
during their long married life she was a help and
an inspiration to her husband, and after her death
she was mourned as few wives in the history of man-
kind have been mourned.
A depth beyond the imagination of Dante must
be found for the Froude-Jewsbury combination.
As the portrait neared completion, Carlyle took a
good look at it one day, seemed pleased, and said :
"Weel, man, you have given me a clean collar,
and that is more than Meester Watts has done."
The portrait was begun and ended as a labor of
love, and for nearly twenty years it remained unsold.
After Carlyle died some citizens of Glasgow, from
purely patriotic motives, and with no appreciation
whatsoever of the painting, thought it should be
purchased, and a public subscription was started.
When the amount first talked of — quite a small
sum — had been nearly subscribed, Whistler learned
that the subscription paper expressly disavowed all
123
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
approval of himself and his art, whereupon he
promptly more than doubled the price, to the dis-
may of the canny Scots, who wished to buy the por-
trait without the art ; and when they hesitated, he
again raised the price, to their utter discomfiture, and
the picture was not purchased until 1891.
It is now owned by the corporation of Glasgow,
and hangs in the public gallery surrounded by a
mass of lesser works which completely dwarf its
great proportions and render adequate appreciation
impossible.
It is worth while to visit Glasgow to see this por-
trait, but until the authorities have the good judgment
to give it a room, or at least a wall to itself, the
journey will prove an exasperation.
The hanging of pictures is a "lost art ;" and most
of the art of pictures is lost in the hanging.
A picture is painted in a certain environment of
light, color, and tone, — and to Whistler this environ-
ment was a vital consideration. For the time being
the canvas is the one conspicuous thing in the studio,
of even greater importance than subject or model.
From this environment of creation, and with which
it is in perfect harmony, it is violently forced into
conjunction with great squares of atrocious gilt
frames and expanses of clashing canvases.
A gallery of pictures is the slaughter-house of
art ; annual exhibitions are the shambles of beauty.
So far as galleries are concerned, the advantage is
usually with the dealer, for he knows the value of
124
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
arrangement and shows his best things more or less
detached. One by one the gems of his collection
are presented to the customer and time given for
appreciation.
There are but two uses to which a painting can
be put with any sense of the fitness of things : it
may be used decoratively alone or in connection
with one or two others which harmonize and which
are distributed to produce a perfect effect ; this is
the noblest use to which a painting of any kind can
be put, the production of an effect in which the
painting, however great, is but an element in a per-
fect whole.
Another and commoner use is the enjoyment of
a picture by itself, as one reads a poem or listens to
music, more or less oblivious to all surroundings.
It is obvious that this sort of enjoyment implies the
subordination of all surroundings to the painting, or
the poem, or the music, the arrangement of the
environment so as to secure the greatest possible
freedom from intrusive and distracting sights and
sounds, — in short, as regards painting, the reproduc-
tion in a sense of the atmosphere of the studio
where the picture was created, or of the place, altar,
or chapel for which it was intended ; and it means
most emphatically freedom from sharp contrast with
pictures by other men and of other times, schools,
and conditions, however good, which will clash pre-
cisely as would two orchestras playing different
pieces in the same hall.
125
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
One can imagine Whistler and Carlyle — painter
and philosopher, two masters, each in his vocation —
in the studio, and the growing portrait, a thing of
beauty there, a bond of union between two men so
divergent, and one can imagine how beautiful the
portrait would be anywhere if by itself amidst har-
monious surroundings, whether used as the chief
ornament of a dignified hall or placed in a more
neutral atmosphere for study and appreciation.
But one cannot imagine more destructive surround-
ings than those of a public gallery, the walls of
which teem with writhing, wriggling things in huge
gilt frames and glaring colors.
And the painters, who ought to know better, but
who encourage these great collections and exhibi-
tions, who live for them, work for them, slave for
them, are more to blame for the existence of these
heterogeneous conglomerations than the public, who
do not know better, but walk helplessly about amidst
endless rows of staring canvases, dimly conscious
that all is not right.
Pictures of equal merit do not necessarily hang
together. A Valesquez and a Raphael, each su-
premely beautiful in the place for which it is in-
tended, produce an inharmonious effect if placed
side by side.
A rabble, with men or pictures, is a throng com-
posed of more or less incongruous and unsympa-
thetic units.
With the exception of the few instances, as in
126
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler n
the Turner room in the National Gallery in London,
where the works of one man are grouped for the
express purpose of comparison and study, every
collection of pictures is a rabble, and as a whole
—ugly.
Nor does the grouping of the works of one man
in one room produce a beautiful effect, a beautiful
room ; not at all, for they are grouped for a scientific
rather than an aesthetic purpose, for the purpose of
study and comparison in a room which is, as it
should be, otherwise barren and neutral.
One or, at most, two fine pictures are all any
ordinary room will stand, and to produce an effect
wherein nothing overwhelmingly predominates, but
everything finds its place and remains there, re-
quires genius different from but of the same high
order as that of the painter, and that sort of genius
has been lacking in the Western world for some
centuries.
So low has the once great art of painting fallen
that it has helplessly relinquished its original field
of great achievement, the adornment of buildings
inside and out, and that has become a separate trade
so incompetently followed that the phrase " interior
decorator" is one of reproach.
And yet little as the commercial "interior dec-
orator" knows about decoration, it is safer to trust to
his fustian stock of burlaps, wall-papers, imitation
leathers, metals, lustres, and illuminations than follow
the guidance of the painters themselves, — for, with
rare exceptions, they know nothing beyond the
127
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
narrow confines of their frames, and their own houses
and studios resemble curiosity-shops.
The art of decoration, which implies the co-op-
eration of architect, sculptor, and painter as a unit,
has not been practised since the sixteenth century,
and not in any high degree of perfection since three
hundred years before.
With the disintegration of the union among the
arts, each has accomplished endless detached and
isolated perfections, but nothing that is really worth
while in the sense that a Greek temple or a Gothic
cathedral was worth while, — for nothing so chaste
and perfect as the former or so sublime and beau-
tiful as the latter has been done since each of the
three constructive arts began to work in jealous in-
dependence of the others.
Rossetti and Whistler were both friends of the
wealthy and eccentric ship-owner F. R. Leyland, of
No. 50 Prince's Gate. He was a collector of things
rare and beautiful, a "patron" of art and artists, a
musician, and altogether a character one associates
with Romance rather than with London.
It was for him that Whistler painted the famous
" Peacock Room," under the following circum-
stances :
Leyland had bought the " Princess of the Land
of Porcelain," and one day Whistler went to see it
in place. He found it in a dining-room which was
richly decorated with costly Spanish leather and a
heavy ceiling of wood, a place altogether too sombre
128
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
for his bright and brilliant "Princess," and he pro-
tested against the discord.
"What would you do?" asked Leyland.
"Paint the room."
"What ! paint that beautiful Spanish leather?"
" Most assuredly, — if this is to be the boudoir of
the 'Princess.' "
Whistler was told to go ahead and make the room
harmonize with the painting.
He started in and covered every inch of wall
surface, even the insides of the shutters, with a won-
derful scheme of decoration in blue and gold, the
brilliant coloring of the peacock, making a color-
effect rich beyond description.
Unhappily, nothing had been said concerning the
price, and that finally named by Leyland seemed to
Whistler quite inadequate ; but he made no com-
plaint and went on with the work. The trouble
came when Leyland paid in pounds instead of
in guineas. That was more than Whistler could
stand.
All professional men in England being paid in
guineas, he would not permit art to be dealt with as
merchandise. He felt, therefore, that he had been
robbed of his shillings, and the whole affair, which
from the beginning had been a matter of pleasure
rather than of profit with him, was placed on a com-
mercial footing. Considering the time spent, the
surface covered, the work done, the price fixed by
Leyland was quite inadequate. Then, to pay in scant
9 129
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
pounds, instead of full guineas, that was, in truth,
adding insult to injury.
The work was not quite complete, and he took his
revenge by painting his "patron" in the guise of a
peacock, with his claws on what might be mere deco-
ration, or, as any one might fancy, a pile of guineas.
The likeness was not immediately perceptible, but,
with a hint, the world soon saw it, and laughed.
Leyland has been dead a long time, and the house
has passed from his family, but the " Peacock Room"
is still in existence, and the curious visitor is occa-
sionally, but not often, admitted. The "Princess" no
longer hangs at one end, for long ago she went to
Scotland, and will soon find her way to America;
but the two peacocks are at the other end, — one the
personification of the grasping "patron" and the
other bearing a faint though perceptible likeness to
the defiant painter with the white lock.
The shelves, which were once filled with the
rarest of blue-and-white china, are now given over
to books, and altogether the place is but a melan-
choly reminder of former beauty. But the decora-
tion is in good condition, and could the walls and
ceilings be removed and the "Princess" restored, the
original effect would be reproduced.
The construction of the room was not Whistler's,
so he worked under great disadvantages in dealing
with architectural features, particularly the ceiling,
which he did not like ; so the room, if ever removed,
would not represent his ideas of proportion and
130
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
construction. It would simply show how he made
the best of a difficult situation.
The architect who designed the room and looked
upon the house as his stepping-stone to fame, when
he saw the — to him- — desecration, was completely
unbalanced, went insane, and died not long after.
If opportunities had offered, Whistler would have
been a great decorator, for such was his suscepti-
bility to color that he could not tolerate discordant
effects about him. It was ever his habit to decorate
his studio, his house, or any rooms he occupied to
suit his exceedingly fastidious taste.
He did not " decorate" in the sense the term is
accepted nowadays. In truth, the casual visitor to
his studio or to his house would depart under the
impression there was no decoration at all, for neither
figures nor patterns made the walls attractive, yet
from floor to ceiling every square inch was a matter
of extreme solicitude. He would mix colors and
apply them with his own hands until the room was
in harmony.
Even the great barn of an attic which was his
studio in Paris was painted by him, so that from its
dark — not black — rich oak floor, along base-boards
and walls, to sloping roof, the effect was such as he
sought as an environment for his pictures, — a brown,
a grayish brown, a soft and singular shade of brown,
hard to describe, difficult to see, but delightful to
feel in its sober and retiring neutrality, — and that is
the best color, the best tone, against which to hang
131
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
Whistler's paintings in any general exhibition, for it
remains quietly and unobtrusively in the background,
and at the same time the silvery quality in it gives
it life.
When London laughed at his " Yellow and
White" exhibition of etchings it did not know that
a master of color was giving an object-lesson in
interior decoration.
Who can recall without a feeling of restful satis-
faction the delightful reception-room of that later
home in Paris, at 1 10 Rue du Bac ? So simple that,
really, there was not a conspicuous feature about it,
and yet every detail had been worked out with as
much care as he bestowed on a painting.
This feature of Whistler's art, this susceptibility
to color and line in surroundings will be referred to
again in the discussion of his exquisite color-sense.
For the present it is sufficient to point out that he
was something more than a painter of easel pictures ;
that instinctively he was akin to those great masters
who combined their efforts with those of the archi-
tect in the endeavor to produce beautiful results.
A sympathetic writer has said :
" Although he was in no way a spendthrift, he would make
every sort of sacrifice to his art. Had he been given more
opportunity, there seems no reason to doubt that he would
have made other rooms even more beautiful than the famous
' Peacock' dining-room. But, frankly, the public did not
care for his work enough to buy much of it from him at any-
thing like a fair price ; so that he was obliged to limit him-
self to comparatively small surfaces, easel pictures, over
132
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
which collectors will soon begin to wrangle, we dare say,
now that the clever hand which created them can work no
more, and the big, kind heart which gave this man the cour-
age to fight through fifty years against ' la betise hutnaine is
cold and still." 1
In showing his work to visitors he exercised all
the reserve and discretion of the Japanese, who
places before his guests but one kakemona during
that most formal and elaborate of social festivities,
the "Tea Ceremony," or who, under pressure of re-
peated requests, takes from its little box and unfolds
from its many silken wrappings one, just one, of his
precious bits of porcelain. No more on the same
day, lest the surfeited guests fail in appreciation.
If in his studio, Whistler would first turn to the
wall every picture and arrange the few pieces of fur-
niture so that nothing should attract the vagrant eye,
then he would place the one picture he wished seen
on the easel in the best of light, without, however,
letting it be seen until frame and glass were care-
fully wiped, when, stepping back on a line with his
visitor, he, too, would enjoy his work as if he saw it
for the first time. He would never exhibit anything
he was tired of, and he never tired of anything he
exhibited. This appreciation of his own work, his
enthusiasm over what he had done, was often mis-
understood by people accustomed to the false mod-
esty of artists who stand dumb while others vainly
1 Harper s Weekly, August I, 1903.
133
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
strive to see in their work the beauties which they
of all people can best make known.
If time permitted he might bring forth two, or
even three, pictures, but rarely more, and always
each by itself. If some visitor, presuming on his
good nature, — and he was indulgent in the extreme
to those he liked, — insisted on placing the pictures
side by side for comparison, as is the custom in
shops, he was as uneasy and unhappy as would be
a poet if several persons insisted on reading aloud
before him several of his poems at the same time, —
for what is a picture but a poem, mute to the ear
but clarion-voiced to the eye ?
In public exhibitions of his works he had the same
sense of the eternal fitness of things.
First of all, the room must be properly lighted,
and Whistler's paintings require a soft light. In his
studio the skylight was well arranged with shades,
so he could keep the light soft and constant ; and
frequently he would draw the shades so as to make
the room quite dark, and then view portrait and
sitter as they loomed up in shadow.
"Some students planned to call on him one New Year's
morning. A friendly student, not at all sure that Whistler
would like it, gave him a little tip as to the surprise party.
" 'Tell them that I never receive callers,' he exclaimed,
excitedly. The student explained that he wasn't supposed
to know anything about it.
" ' Are you sure they mean well ?' he inquired, anxiously.
And on being reassured, ' Well, tell them I never receive
visitors in the morning.'
134
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
" The students called in the afternoon, and found awaiting
them a most genial and delightful host. He told stories and
showed fhem his palettes to prove that he practised what he
preached, and pictures and sketches were exhibited to them
never seen by the public, among the surprising ones being
some allegorical studies. He served them with champagne
and fruits and cakes, and was most solicitous as to their en-
joyment. One of them asked him how he arranged his sub-
jects so as to produce the low tone noted in his pictures.
He posed a visitor, pulled over the shades so as to shut out
all light, save from one window, and there before them was
a living Whistler ' arrangement' ready to recede behind a
frame, as he says all portraits should do.
It is a pity to ever subject his pictures to the try-
ing light of the usual gallery, and it is a still greater
pity to exhibit them at night in competition with
foot-lights and foyer. His work should not be made
the attraction for either a " five-o'clock tea" or a
dress rehearsal. People who will not go during the
day are not worth inviting.
The fact that people are content to view the best
paintings of all time by artificial light, and even
profess to find a " softness" and "charm" lacking by
day, is but additional evidence of that want of sus-
ceptibility and fine feeling which characterizes the
modern world, artists and laymen alike. For no
picture that was painted by daylight should be seen
at night, if all its beauties are to be felt.
A room for the exhibition of his pictures should
be of precisely the right tone, and this is a matter
of no little difficulty.
i35
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
When president of the Society of British Artists,
in 1886, his arrangement of the rooms was criticised
as being "tentative," because he had left the bat-
tens on the walls ; whereupon he wrote that in the
engineering of the light and the treatment of the
walls and the arrangement of the draperies every-
thing was intentional ; that the battens were meant
to remain, " not only for their use, but as bringing
parallel lines into play that subdivide charmingly the
lower portions of the walls and add to their light
appearance ; that the whole combination is com-
plete."
There is a hint to all managers of exhibitions.
To summarize the foregoing suggestions :
The tone of the walls should be such as to keep
them in the background.
The monotonous blankness of the walls may be
broken by unobtrusive lines, not arbitrarily for effect,
but justifiably for use and effect.
Only such draperies should be used as are abso-
lutely necessary to reduce vacancies or to soften
harsh lines, and these should lose themselves in the
tone of the room.
Floor should be low in tone, the rich, dark brown
of old oak keeping its place under foot best of
all.
If the room is large and a few chairs and benches
are admitted, they should be of wood, plain and for
service alone, as becomes a room that is arranged
but for one purpose, — namely, the exhibition of cer-
136
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
tain pictures, — and they should be painted or stained
in tone to correspond with the room.
The light should be under absolute control, and
kept quite soft, diffused, and constant throughout the
day.
The room should be closed at night, or at least
the people fully warned by notices in catalogue and
elsewhere that if they have any real desire to see
and understand the pictures they will come during
the day.
The pictures should be well spaced, so that each
may, to a certain degree, be studied by itself, for
each is as complete a work as a piece of music.
In short, in an exhibition of pictures, or of any-
thing else, everything should be subordinated to the
things exhibited ; nothing should be permitted to
obtrude upon the attention to their disadvantage ;
the work of the decorator and furnisher on such an
occasion is perfect when it is unnoticed.
For black-and-whites, experiments in color may
be made, but for paintings which are compositions
in color the background should be neutral, — silent
like the background of music.
As every one knows, green and red, side by side,
accentuate and help each other ; therefore, pictures
in which the prevailing tone is green are helped by
a red or crimson background, while pictures in which
the prevailing tone is red are helped by a green back-
ground.
The foregoing is elementary and a matter of
common observation, and the walls of art galleries
137
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
and exhibitions are frequently covered with either a
shade of green or a shade of crimson ; but in placing
pictures no discrimination is exercised, — landscapes
and marines in which green predominates are placed
side by side with portraits and interiors in which red
frequently predominates on the same green or red
background, to the advantage of one set of pictures
and the detriment of the other.
So far as color-effect is concerned, the pictures
themselves go very well side by side, the red of
the life pieces helping the green of the nature
pieces, and vice versa ; but if the background is
permitted to assert itself, if the pictures are spaced
on the wall, any background which accentuates the
one class does so at the expense of the other.
If pictures in which the prevailing tone is green
are to be placed on the same wall with pictures in
which red predominates, the background should be
neither red nor green, but, theoretically, a gray,
which is neutral and helps all colors in contrast ;
practically, however, a grayish hue of brown, be-
cause pure gray requires a greater expanse of wall
between each picture than the exigencies of an
exhibition or of a typical picture gallery permit,
while the element of brown permits the wall to
assert itself a little more positively between the
frames, and, at the same time, the quality of neu-
trality is almost as well preserved.
The stronger the tone of the background the
nearer together pictures may be placed ; the weaker
and more neutral the background the wider the
138
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
spacing must be, — a pure gray requiring the widest
spacing of all backgrounds, a deep crimson the
narrowest. In other words, it requires a wide ex-
panse of gray to support a little color, while a very
little crimson will carry a very large expanse of
color in the way of gilt frames and strong landscapes
and marines.
Wide frames, whether of gold or dark wood,
enable green walls to carry green pictures and red
walls to carry red pictures without the pictures suf-
fering so much ; the frames intervene, and the imme-
diate contrast is between canvas and frame instead
of canvas and wall. But the secondary contrast is
there and is felt precisely in proportion to the extent
of the spacing between the pictures, and the pict-
ures suffer accordingly.
139
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
VI
The Ruskin Suit — His Attitude towards the World
and towards Art — "The Gentle Art of Making
Enemies" — Critics and Criticism.
In 1877 Ruskin, passing through the Grosvenor
Gallery, caught sight of something the like of which
he had never seen in the world of art. It was the
"Nocturne, Black and Gold. The Falling Rocket,"
a faithful transcript of the painter's impression of a
night-scene in Cremorne Gardens. But Ruskin cared
less for the subtle glories of night than for the more
garish beauties of the day, and still less for the sights
and sounds of Cremorne Gardens, and neither he nor
any one else in either modern or ancient world knew
anything at all about the painting of night as Whist-
ler painted it. It is not surprising, therefore, that he
was startled, for the picture seemed to violate all
those canons of art which he had laid down in Eng-
lish the beauty of which more than condones his
every error, and on the impulse of the moment he
wrote in a number of Fors Clavigera :
"For Mr. Whistler's own sake, no less than for
the protection of the purchaser, Sir Coutts Lindsay
ought not to have admitted works into the gallery in
which the ill-educated conceit of the artist so nearly
140
NOCTURNE, BLACK AND GOLD. THE FALLING ROCKET
T3'AD0X OHIJJA'4 3HT .UJ<>. • CT/IA WJAJU .a/.M
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
approached the aspect of wilful imposture. I have
seen and heard much of cockney impudence before
now, but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two
hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the
public's face."
By way of extenuation, it must be borne in mind
that this was written off-hand, at a time when Ruskin
was saying so many extravagant things, though with
them so many profoundly true things, that no one
quite understood him, and many thought him not
quite sound mentally. The habit of sweeping gen-
eralizations, of extravagant appreciations and de-
preciations had grown apace since the publication
of the first volume of " Modern Painters," nearly
forty years before, and he invariably yielded to the
impression or the prejudice of the moment.
If Ruskin, in estimating Whistler, had paused but
a moment and recalled just a paragraph from the
preface to the second edition of the first volume of
" Modern Painters" he would have been more toler-
ant, for he there said :
' ' All that is highest in art, all that is creative and im-
aginative, is formed and created by every great master for
himself, and cannot be repeated or imitated by others. We
judge of the excellence of a rising writer, not so much by
the resemblance of his works to what has been done before
as by their difference from it ; and while we advise him, in
the first trials of strength, to set certain models before him,
with respect to inferior points, — one for versification, another
141
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
for arrangement, another for treatment, — we yet admit not
his greatness until he has broken away from all his models
and struck forth versification, arrangement, and treatment of
his own."
And was not Ruskin himself the life-long apolo-
gist for a most original and extraordinary genius, —
a man who to his last days was as little understood
as Whistler?
Here are some things that were said of Turner as
late as 1842, when he was doing some of his best
work :
" The ' Dogano' (sic) and ' Campo Santo' have a glorious
ensemble, and are produced by wonderful art, but they mean
nothing. They are produced as if by throwing handfuls of
white and blue and red at the canvas, letting what chanced
to stick, stick, and then shadowing in some forms to make
the appearance of a picture ; and yet there is a fine harmony
in the highest range of color to please the sense of vision.
We admire and we lament to see such genius so employed.
But ' Farther on you may fare worse.' No. 182 is a snow-
storm of most unintelligible character, — the snow-storm of a
confused dream, with a steamboat ' making signals,' and (ap-
parently, like the painter who was in it) ' going by the head'
(lead ?). Neither by land nor water was such a scene ever
witnessed. And of 338, 'Burial at Sea,' though there is a
striking effect, still the whole is so idealized and removed
from truth that, instead of the feeling it ought to effect, it
only excites ridicule. And No. 353 caps all for absurdity,
without even any of the redeeming qualities of the rest. It
represents Bonaparte — facetiously described as the ' Exile
and the rock-limpet' — standing on the sea-shore at St. Helena
. . . the whole thing is so truly ludicrous," etc. 1
1 Library Gazette, May 14, 1842, p. 33
142
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
Another writer says :
1 ' This gentleman has on former occasions chosen to paint
with cream, or chocolate, yolk of egg, or currant-jelly, —
there he uses his whole array of kitchen-stuff. . . . We cannot
fancy the state of eye which will permit any one cognizant of
art to treat these rhapsodies as Lord Byron treated ' Christa-
bel ;' neither can we believe in any future revolution which
shall bring the world round to the opinion of the worshipper,
if worshippers such frenzies still possess." 1
In reply to these and similar criticisms Ruskin
said : 2
"There is nothing so high in art but that a scurrile jest
can reach it ; and often the greater the work the easier it
is to turn it into ridicule. To appreciate the science of
Turner's color would require the study of a life, but to laugh
at it requires little more than the knowledge that yolk of egg
is yellow and spinach green, — a fund of critical information
on which the remarks of most of our leading periodicals have
been of late years exclusively based. We shall, however,
in spite of the sulphur-and-treacle criticisms of our Scotch
connoisseurs and the eggs and the spinach of our English
ones, endeavor to test the works of this great colorist by a
knowledge of nature somewhat more extensive than is to be
gained by an acquaintance, however familiar, with the
apothecary's shop or the dinner-table."
There is Ruskin in arms on the other side, — it
making all the difference in the world which ox is
gored.
1 Athencemn, May 14, 1842, p. 433.
2 See opening paragraph of Chapter II. of the first and
second editions of the first volume of ' ' Modern Painters. ' '
143
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
What an interesting chapter in the history of
appreciation it all makes. Here we have the critics
fulminating against Turner in "egg and spinach"
terms and Ruskin fulminating against the critics in
"pot and kettle" terms. A few years later we have
Ruskin fulminating against Whistler in the same old
terms ; but Whistler greatly improved the language
of vituperation by introducing humor, and answered
with words that bit like acid and epigrams pointed
like needles — the etcher in controversy.
" Produced as if by throwing handfuls of white
and blue and red at the canvas," said the critic of
Turner. " Flinging a pot of paint in the public's
face," said Ruskin of Whistler. Beyond this, criti-
cism begins to be personal.
And Whistler drew the line on the "pot and
kettle" stage and brought suit for libel.
The case was heard in November, 1878, before
Baron Huddleston and a special jury.
The cross-examination of Whistler by the at-
torney-general, who appeared for the defendant,
was one of the features of the case, and brought
out many of the artist's views concerning art and
art critics.
It is said that during the trial one of Whistler's
counsel was holding up the nocturne in controversy
before the jury, when one of the counsel on the
other side called out :
"You are holding that upside down."
"No, I'm not."
" I tell you, you are."
144
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
" How do you know which is the top and which
is the bottom?"
"Oh, I don't know ; only when I saw it hanging
in the Grosvenor Gallery it was the other side
up."
Whereupon — out of deference to precedent — the
nocturne was reversed.
When Whistler was asked whether the nocturne
represented a view of Cremorne, he answered :
"If it were called a view of Cremorne, it would
certainly bring about nothing but disappointment
on the part of the beholders. It is an artistic
arrangement"
And again, when asked whether a certain nocturne
in blue and silver was a "correct" representation of
Battersea Bridge, he replied :
"I did not intend it to be a 'correct' portrait of
the bridge. It is only a moonlight scene, and the
pier in the centre of the picture may not be like the
piers at Battersea Bridge as you know them in broad
daylight. As to what the picture represents, that
depends upon who looks at it. To some it may
represent all that is intended ; to others it may rep-
resent nothing."
"The prevailing color is blue?"
"Perhaps."
"Are these figures on the top of the bridge in-
tended for people?"
"They are just what you like."
"Is that a barge beneath?"
"Yes. I am very much encouraged at your
145
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
perceiving that My whole scheme was only to bring
about a certain harmony of color."
Mr. Ruskin did not appear, but others testified in
his behalf.
Edward Burne-Jones admitted the picture had
fine color, but found absolutely no detail and com-
position. It was " bewildering in form," and "one
of the thousand failures to paint night," and "not
worth two hundred guineas."
All of which opinions have been reversed by time,
— even to the value, which quintupled many years
ago.
Mr. Frith — of whose art both Burne-Jones and
Ruskin probably had opinions that could not be
expressed in temperate language — presented his
credentials as the author of the "Railway Station,"
"Derby Day," and the "Rakes Progress," and
testified that Whistler's pictures were " not serious
works of art." But, then, he confessed he had not
been invited to exhibit at the Grosvenor Gallery,
and, as every one knows, what is considered art in
one exhibition may not be so considered in another.
And Tom Taylor, of the Times, — well, for Tom
Taylor's testimony and opinions one must go to the
" Gentle Art." It is his one sure niche in the temple
of fame.
In addressing the jury, the attorney-general said
" he did not know when so much amusement had
been offered to the British public as by Mr. Whist-
ler's pictures."
146
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
The verdict was for the plaintiff, and the damages
assessed at one farthing ; which coin Whistler wore
on his chain long afterwards.
The costs assessed against Ruskin amounted to
£3 86 12s. 4d., and were paid by public subscription,
one hundred and twenty persons contributing.
Concerning this suit, Ruskin said, "I am blamed
by my prudent acquaintances for being too personal ;
but, truly, I find vaguely objurgatory language gen-
erally a mere form of what Plato calls 'shadow-
fighting.' " And long after, when a friend asked
him about the case, he said, "I am afraid of a libel
action if I open my mouth ; and if I can't say what
I like about a person, I prefer to say nothing at all." *
Even Ruskin could not say what he liked about
any one, though every one, including the victim,
might like the manner of his saying it. Still, it
will ever remain a matter of wonder how Whistler
induced an English jury, who could not possibly
understand him, to give him a nominal verdict and
saddle the costs upon Ruskin, who was something
of a popular idol.
Whistler's lawyers must have been cleverer than
those of the other side. The attorney-general prob-
ably proved, as his speech indicates, a clumsy de-
fender in a case involving nice questions of art.
Be it said to the credit of Whistler's sagacity,
he always employed the best lawyers available. He
1 John Ruskin, by Spielmann, p. 34.
147
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
once said, " Poor lawyers, like poor paintings, are
dear at any price."
While Whistler had practised the gentle art of
making enemies from the beginning of his career,
his suit against Ruskin was, so to speak, his first
public appearance, and he threw his dart at a shining
mark.
What his real feelings towards Ruskin were no
man can say, — for towards the public and his critics
he was one man, towards his art he was quite
another.
To the world he seemed the incarnation of vanity
and conceit ; to the few whose privilege it was to see
him at work he appeared, and was, the embodiment
of sincerity and earnestness, of simplicity to the
verge of diffidence.
It is impossible to conceive two personalities so dif-
ferent as Whistler at work and Whistler at play, and
all his controversies were play to him, the amuse-
ment of his hours of relaxation.
He sued Ruskin, not because his status before art
was in any wise affected, but because his status be-
fore the public was assailed ; not because he cared
the snap of his finger for any adverse opinion con-
cerning his pictures, but because he felt that he had
a certain position, pose one might say, to maintain,
and because it amused him to sue one who was con-
sidered so infallible ; and he, no doubt, felt reason-
148
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
ably sure he would be more than recompensed by
the solemn testimony of opposing witnesses.
Whistler has been so often charged with being a
poser that in the eyes of the world he really must
have seemed so.
He was a poser in the sense already indicated,
— namely, he was one man before the public and
another at work. In this sense every man clever
enough to forget himself at times is something of a
poser, for only the stupid who can talk nothing but
"shop," wherever they are, are the same day in and
day out.
Most men are able to leave their work behind
and adopt a role more or less artificial in social in-
tercourse. The brilliant few who make society pos-
sess this faculty in an eminent degree.
The objection that social England has against the
shopkeeper is, no doubt, based upon many sad ex-
periences that the shopkeeper brings his shop with
him to dinner, and will not, or cannot, pose to the
extent of forgetting his material concerns in the
presence of the frivolous.
The preacher, the politician, the lawyer, the sol-
dier may introduce a little "shop" in general con-
versation, for these occupations are supposed to have
a more general interest ; but the butcher, the baker,
and the candlestick-maker cannot. But preacher,
politician, lawyer, and soldier make the better
guests if they pose a little and forget, for the time
being, their occupations.
149
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
Convictions must be introduced sparingly in social
intercourse ; a very few go a great way.
Why not adopt and duly post some such salutary
rule as this? In social intercourse the utterance of
one's profound convictions shall bear the same ratio
to one's total utterances on any given occasion that
the speaker bears to the number present and partici-
pating in the conversation. That is to say, if the
conversation is between two alone, half that either
says may be his convictions, the other half a polite,
though futile, endeavor to understand the other's
convictions. If at a table of twelve, about a twelfth
of one's real thoughts are permissible, and all that,
in justice to others, should be attempted.
But, then, conversation is a lost art. An Athenian
could talk better about everything than a modern
can talk about anything. Cast a subject, a thought,
so much as a suggestion, into a knot of Greeks, and
in a trice, like dogs over a bone, they would be
wrestling with it, and the less they knew about it the
brighter the discussion.
Knowledge is the last refuge of the stupid. Facts
are the sinkers of talk. Ideas are the flash-lights of
the imagination ; and conversation depends not upon
knowledge but upon ideas. One who knows noth-
ing of a subject may have more ideas concerning it
than one who knows all about Women are fre-
quently better conversers than men, because less
hampered by facts.
Knowledge is a heavy weight for conversation to
carry. But of all the bores who find their way to
150
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
the dinner-table the specialist in knowledge is the
most hopeless. The man who knows everything about
something is at the stupid end ; the man who knows
something about everything at the brilliant, with a
place at his right hand for the woman who knows
nothing about anything.
Whistler was of the choice few who would never
speak seriously of his serious pursuits in general
conversation. At those very moments when he
seemed to be saying most about art and artists he
was in reality saying least of what he really thought.
When he talked most of himself he said nothing
that he really felt. It was almost impossible to draw
from him a serious opinion concerning a picture or
a painter. Though he might rail by the hour against
this man or that, if the mood seized him, it all meant
nothing.
In his studio, when at work, opinions and apprecia-
tions worth remembering would drop from his lips ;
but he rarely committed himself; not because his
convictions were not clear, but because he seldom
thought it worth while.
Once he was dining with quite a distinguished
company. The conversation — possibly as tribute to
the presence of so noted an artist — turned upon art,
and finally upon a notorious picture, called " Nana,"
of a naked woman on a couch, that was quite a sen-
sation in London. It has been seen on this side.
Loud were the expressions of approval. Whistler
remained silent.
151
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
' ' What do you think of « Nana, ' Mr. Whistler ?' ' asked
the distinguished lady at his right.
" Is it not wonderful ? — so life-like," exclaimed the distin-
guished lady at his left.
But Whistler, apparently spellbound by the bird before
him, was silent.
" But, Mr. Whistler, you have not told us what you think
about ' Nana, ' ' ' said the distinguished lady opposite.
At bay at last, he said :
' ' Really, madam, you know, it is quite — presumptious —
quite, for one who — who is simply, as one might say, a
painter, and therefore — you know — not entitled to opinions
— to express himself in the presence of so — so many distin-
guished connoisseurs ; but — since you demand my opinion —
as a highwayman would a purse — I yield to superior strength
and say — with all deference — that ' Nana' is — trash."
"Oh !"
"Oh, Mr. Whistler."
" But have you seen it ?"
"No."
' * Then, how can you say it is trash ?' '
" It must be — it — is so — popular."
" Will you go to see it ?"
" That is not necessary."
" But I want you to go with me to-morrow to see ' Nana.' "
And the charming lady on his right insisted so imperiously
that he should go with her and several of the company who
wished to be of the party, that he yielded, saying, however :
" On one condition."
"What is it?"
« ' That you will go with me afterward, to the National Gal-
lery and see some pictures I am sure you have never seen. ' '
• ' Some new ones ?' '
" To you — yes."
It was agreed ; and the following day Whistler with several
of the party paid each a shilling to see " Nana" stretched at
152
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
ease under a strong light at the far end of a dark room. It
might have been a painting or ' ' Nana' ' herself, the realism
was so gross.
All save Whistler were in raptures over the wondrous
thing. He was silent.
Then they went to the National Gallery, and he took them
before one great portrait after another.
" But we have seen these before," chorused the voices.
" Impossible !" exclaimed Whistler.
" Oh, yes, many times," sang the voices.
' ' But you do not like them ; you detest them. ' '
" Oh, no ! no ! no !"
"But they are not at all like 'Nana' ; they haven't
'Nana's* wonderful flesh-tones, 'Nana's' beautiful skin;
are not so life-like as ' Nana,' and beside ' Nana' you must
consider them as poor, wretched daubs. ' '
And so he took them from one masterpiece to another,
repeating before each one their raptures over ' ' Nana' ' until
they were silent. Then he said :
" I have shown you some pictures that are considered
good by those whose opinions are precious, and you have
not found in one a single characteristic that you admired in
'Nana,' and you yourselves would not admit her to this
glorious company ; therefore, again I say, ' Nana' is —
trash."
In the sense, therefore, that he presented a care-
less, trivial, or cynical side to the public and a
serious side to his art, Whistler was a poser, and
during his idle hours he had the habit of amusing
himself at the expense of any one who crossed his
path. And why not? Did not the world try so
hard to amuse itself at his expense? Were his
feelings spared ? Was aught of ridicule or insult
that human ingenuity could devise withheld ?
i53
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
But his opponents were so clumsy that, save as he
himself preserved their crude repartees, only his epi-
grammatic utterances are remembered ; and therefore
he has all the blame for the controversies, while the
truth is that, considering the flood of opprobrium
poured out upon him in print and in speech, he said
very little, took but occasional notice of his assailants.
All he said fills but a portion of a small book, — the
" Gentle Art," — while his opponents have the bal-
ance ; and if all adverse personal comments of a des-
picable nature were gathered together from both
sides of the Atlantic, they would make up many
closely-printed volumes.
For a man who could write so well, Whistler ex-
ercised great restraint in writing so little, but — that
little !
And yet it is a pity, from one point of view, that
he wrote at all ; his art did not need it, and in the
way of general estimation and recognition suffers
not a little on account of it.
For twenty-odd years the public has been amused,
startled, and irritated by the letters and utterances
which make up "The Gentle Art of Making Ene-
mies," and it will be many a long day before they
are so far forgotten that Whistler's art will be judged
wholly upon its merits.
If the "Gentle Art" did not exist as it does in its
harmony in brown, English literature would lack a
volume which is in itself a bit of art and unique of
its kind. There is nothing at all like it, and only
i54
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
Whistler could have done it The book is a perfect
expression of one side of his many-sided and extra-
ordinary personality, and as such is therefore a work
of art, and, at the same time, material which cannot
be spared if the man is to be thoroughly understood ;
but it reveals the side which is least worth under-
standing, it accentuates traits which are inconsequen-
tial, and it gives the public an entirely erroneous
impression, because the public find it easy to buy
and read the book, but difficult to so much as see
the pictures, and quite impossible to understand them
when they do see them.
In Whistler's life the writing of the few lines and
the putting together of the matter contained in the
" Gentle Art" occupied an almost infinitesimal frac-
tion of his leisure hours, whereas for fifty years he
painted, etched, and lithographed industriously ; yet,
so far as the public of England and America is con-
cerned, his controversies overshadow his art ; while
to the French, who happily could not read the book,
he is known only as an artist
Criticism of art afforded Whistler a world of
amusement, and the art critic was his especial aver-
sion.
"That writers should destroy writings to the
benefit of writing" seemed to him just, but that
writers should criticise painting seemed to him
altogether illogical.
And he quotes the critic of the Times, who said
of Velasquez's "Las Menimas" that it was "slovenly
i55
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
in execution, poor in color, — being little but a com-
bination of neutral grays and ugly in its forms."
And he shows how the same great critic praised a
Turner that turned out to be no Turner. When
this particular critic died, a few years ago, Whistler
sorrowfully said, " I have hardly a warm personal
enemy left."
And he showed how one said that Daubigny had
neither drawing nor color, and another that the works
of Corot to the first impression of an Englishman
"are the sketches of an amateur," and another that
everything Courbet touches "becomes unpleasant."
All these by the most eminent critics in the land,
— men whose say-so in days gone by made and un-
made, for the time being, the reputations of artists.
And he grouped together a number of Ruskin's
dogmatic utterances, where in his enthusiasm for
certain men he condemned others who were infi-
nitely superior, — as, for instance, where he praises
without limitations the work of the forgotten Prout,
and says that Rembrandt's colors are wrong from
beginning to end, and that "Vulgarity, dulness,
or impiety will indeed always express themselves
through art in brown and gray, as in Rembrandt;"
and again where he places Rubens above Titian and
Raphael, and compares an unknown Mulready with
Albert Durer, to the disadvantage of the latter.
These things it pleased Whistler to do, and he has
done them with rare piquancy in the " Gentle Art."
If what is contained therein savors in aught of
malice, let it be remembered that public, critics,
156
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
painters were snapping at his heels during the years
that he was doing the very work which public, critics,
and painters now worship, and a lesser man would
have yielded to the storm of adverse opinion and
ridicule.
With the exception of a few friends and admirers,
he was absolutely without support during the period
when an artist most needs encouragement.
It is everlastingly to his credit that neither the
ridicule of others — " the voice of the nation" — nor
his own necessities, and they pressed heavily at
times, caused him to swerve a hair's breadth from
what he believed to be worth doing in art.
Nearly every great artist of whom we have any
record has at one time or another in his career
yielded to the temptation — frequently under press-
ure of dire necessity — to do something that would
sell. No such reproach can be laid at Whistler's
door.
The galled critics complained that he did not
treat them fairly, — that he selected small excerpts
from voluminous essays ; whereas, if he had re-
printed the essays entire, language apparently plain
would have been reversed in meaning. For instance,
he of the Times, who had written of Velasquez,
complained that the quotation gave " exactly the
opposite impression to that which the article, taken
as a whole, conveys." It must have been an extraor-
dinary article to transform what was quoted into
praise ; but Whistler, in reply, said :
157
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
"Why squabble over your little article? You did print
what I quote, you know, Tom ; and it is surely unimportant
what more you may have written of the Master. That you
should have written anything at all is your crime."
Ruskin never complained of anything Whistler
wrote. The one utterance which caused the suit
for libel was probably the first and last that passed
his lips. The eloquent old man never did pay
very much attention to what others thought of him ;
he was too busy with his own dreams and fancies.
He did write what Whistler quoted about Rem-
brandt, but the whole passage is a lament over the
lack of appreciation of color, and is as follows :
" For instance : our reprobation of bright color is, I think,
for the most part, mere affectation, and must soon be done
away with. Vulgarity, dulness, or impiety will indeed always
express themselves through art in brown and gray, as in
Rembrandt, Caravaggio, and Salvator ; but we are not wholly
vulgar, dull, or impious, nor, as moderns, are we necessarily
obliged to continue so in any wise. Our greatest men,
whether sad or gay, still delight, like the great men of all
ages, in brilliant hues. The coloring of Scott and Byron is
full and pure ; that of Keats and Tennyson rich even to
excess. Our practical failures in coloring are merely the
necessary consequences of our prolonged want of practice
during the period of Renaissance affectation and ignorance ;
and the only durable difference between old and modern
coloring is the acceptance of certain hues by the modern,
which please him by expressing that melancholy peculiar to
his more reflective or sentimental character and the greater
variety of them necessary to express his greater science." 1
1 Modern Painters, vol. hi., chap, xvii., paragraph 18.
158
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
Again, on the subject of color, he says :
" We find the greatest artists mainly divided into two
groups, — those who paint principally with respect to local
color, headed by Paul Veronese, Titian, and Turner, and those
who paint principally with reference to light and shade irre-
spective of color, headed by Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt,
and Raphael. The noblest members of each of these classes
introduce the element proper to the other class, in a subor-
dinate way. Paul Veronese introduces a subordinate light
and shade, and Leonardo introduces a subordinate local
color. The main difference is, that with Leonardo, Rem-
brandt, and Raphael vast masses of the picture are lost in
comparatively colorless (dark, gray, or brown) shadow, —
these painters beginning with the lights and going down to
blackness ; but with Veronese, Titian, and Turner the whole
picture is like the rose, — glowing with color in the shadows
and rising into paler and more delicate hues, or masses of
wfliiteness, in the lights, — they having begun with the shadows
and gone up to whiteness."
Ruskin said so much about art, and said it so dog-
matically, that no one utterance gives an adequate
conception of what he thought about any one man.
Furthermore, while his language is crystal itself, his
thoughts are often contradictory and confusing in
the extreme.
For instance, no man with any sense of color
whatsoever would group Leonardo, Rembrandt, and
Raphael together as men who painted " irrespective
of color," — for no great Italian from the days of
Giotto to those of Michael Angelo painted regardless
of color ; on the contrary, color is the one conspic-
uous, brilliant, and beautiful feature of their work,
i59
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
and the color-sense, as it existed in those days in all
its exquisite refinement, is, generally speaking, abso-
lutely wanting in ours.
In all but color Rembrandt forgot more than most
of the Italians ever knew ; but in the use of color —
not imitatively, not after the manner of nature, but
decoratively and arbitrarily — the Italians forgot more
than Rembrandt ever knew ; and, so far as color is
concerned, there is absolutely nothing in common
between Rembrandt and Leonardo or Raphael,
while there is much in common between the two
latter.
It was not color, but light, that Ruskin appre-
ciated, as is shown by a hundred passages, but by
none more clearly than that quoted wherein he says
of the three painters last named, — and the italics are
his, — " these painters beginning with lights and
going down to blackness ; but with Veronese, Titian,
and Turner the whole picture is like the rose, —
glowing with color in the shadows and rising into
paler and more delicate hues, or masses of white-
ness, in the lights, — they having begun with the
shadows and gone up to whiteness."
When he held his exhibition in London, in 1 892,
of " Nocturnes, Marines, and Chevalet Pieces," — a
"small collection kindly lent their owners," — he
once more printed in his dainty brown-paper-cov-
ered catalogue, beneath each picture, the early com-
ments of press, critics, and people, and called it all
"The Voice of a People."
160
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
And what a collection of bizarre opinions it is, to
be sure, from the serious Times to the lightsome
Merrie England, which said :
" He paints in soot colors and mud colors, but, far
from enjoying the primary hues, has little or no per-
ception of secondary or tertiary color."
Which goes to show that the budding science of
chromatics is not without effect on vocabularies.
Here we have the "kitchen stuff" criticism of
Turner in 1842 paraphrased word for word in the
mud and soot criticism of Whistler precisely fifty
years later.
Is the jargon of criticism at once limited and
exhausted? Are we to linger forever about the
cook-stove in the depreciation of art ? With the in-
troduction of the steel range of mammoth propor-
tions can we not find new terms of opprobrium?
Besides, there are the gas and gasoline stoves of ex-
plosive habit, which ought to be suggestive of nov-
elty in vituperation. But, alas, the critic is prone
to repeat himself, and the language of the fathers is
visited upon the children unto the third and fourth
generations of them that hate.
And press, critics, and artists are convicted, once
more, of incompetency. But what does it matter,
save as a warning that will not be heeded ? Are we
any wiser in our generation ? Were Whistler to
appear to-day, as he did forty-odd years ago, would
he be received with the praise his works command
now ? Hardly.
« 161
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
Many of his followers were quite as absurd in
their misplaced admiration as the maligned public in
its denunciation, and no one knew it better than he.
He came upon two of them once as they were wax-
ing eloquent before a sketch that had somehow
escaped his studio, — possibly overlooked and left
behind in some of his movings. He listened a
moment to their raptures, fitted his monocle to his
eye, took a look at this '• masterpiece," and said :
"God bless me, I wonder where that came from.
Not worth the canvas it's painted on."
And he turned away.
We who have been taught to see, not wholly but
in part, may laugh at our betters who, when he first
appeared, could see nothing at all ; but our virtue is
acquired.
His attitude towards critics is summed up in the
short but pointed article written in December, 1878,
shortly after the Ruskin suit, and called "Art and
Art Critics."
"Shall the painter, then (I foresee the question), decide
upon painting ? Shall he be the critic and sole authority ?
Aggressive as is this supposition, I fear that, in the length of
time, his assertion alone has established what even the gen-
tlemen of the quill accept as the canons of art and recognize
as the masterpieces of work."
All of which is undeniably true. The painter
must in the end judge of painting, and the sculptor
judge of sculpture. But there are two distinct sides
162
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
to a work of art, — to every work, for that matter :
there is the relation between the worker and his
work, and the relation between the completed work
and the public, — the work being the intermediary
between artist and people, his means of communi-
cation, his* mode and manner of speech.
There is, therefore, the process of creation and
the process of appreciation, of utterance and of
understanding.
The painting of a picture is one thing, its appre-
ciation by the public is quite another.
A man need not be a dramatist to watch the
effect of a drama upon the audience ; a man need
not own a vineyard to know good wine.
The critic stands, or, rather, should stand, between
the public and the work he criticises, whether it be
poem, painting, statue, or drama ; the mistake he
commonly makes is in forcing himself between the
worker and his work, and in trying to teach him
something only another and better worker in the
same art is competent to do.
Critics make most of their blunders in judging
works according to preconceived notions as to how
they should be done, — in condemning, for instance,
a picture because not painted after prevailing modes
and methods, because it is a departure, whereas
with these considerations the lay-critic has nothing
to do ; they fall entirely within the province of the
painter-critic, the one man who is competent, in the
long run, to pass upon the methods employed.
Every work is an appeal to the public, — its com-
163
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
pletion and exhibition make it such ; therefore,
every work challenges the critical faculties, great or
small, of those who see it. It is inevitable that some
more interested should spring up to interpret, rightly
or wrongly, the work to the public ; the artist sel-
dom takes the trouble, — in fact, has neither the time
nor the temperament ; his message is complete in
the picture, others must understand it as best they
can.
The playwright cannot address the audience save
through the play, the poet speaks only through his
poetiy, the painter through his pictures, the sculptor
through the forms of his creation. Seldom is an
artist gifted with more than one tongue, and that
tongue is his art. How, then, can artists interpret
the work of artists ? How can the painter, who is
dumb save with his brush, or the sculptor, who is
mute save with his clay and chisel, tell the world
anything about the work of others ?
It is the business of those who can speak and
write to tell the people, not how the work was created,
unless they were present, but how it impressed them
as a finished thing. That is the province of legitimate
criticism.
Every man who has done his best to understand,
though at the risk of betraying his ignorance, has
the right to say how he likes what he sees or hears
or tastes. The opinions of some are worth more
than those of others ; and these opinions, with the
reasons therefor, we are delighted to hear. That is
about all there is to sound criticism ; and in that sense
164
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
comment and those whose profession is to comment
are inevitable, — until the aesthetic millenium, when
critics cease from troubling and the artists are at rest
Ruskin, unfortunately, attempted the double duty
of telling painters how to paint and the public what
to like. With all his industry and considerable
talent for drawing, he was not competent to tell
painters how to paint, — though much that he said is
accepted as sound, — and his judgments of the rela-
tive merits of painters and pictures were biassed by
his own convictions regarding the way the work
should be done.
His limitations were due to his strong preferences
and violent prejudices. His devotion to Turner — a
great painter — was one limitation ; lack of appre-
ciation of Rembrandt was another ; failure to esti-
mate Velasquez at his real worth was another ; and
a lot of enthusiasms for men who are now forgotten
are so many additional evidences of lack of judicial
temper in Ruskin. But all these things are as noth-
ings in comparison with the rich store of things said
in English so strong, so simple, and yet so beautiful
that it fairly intoxicates and rouses something akin
to a religious enthusiasm.
A word concerning the "Voice of a People," as
Whistler called his little collection of criticisms.
What is it ?
In literature the " Vqice of a People" makes
itself heard at the bookseller's counter and over
the desk of the circulating library, — and that, too,
165
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
regardless of critics who praise this book and con-
demn that. Sometimes, before the Critic has spoken,
the " Voice" is heard, and the presses groan with the
burden of their task ; or, more often, after the Critic
has had his say, the " Voice," disregarding labored
precepts, calls loudly for what it is told it should not
have ; and so in literature the "Voice" makes itself
heard loud and clear and natural, and there is no
mistaking it.
Likewise in the drama the insistent "Voice" de-
mands trash or otherwise, quite regardless of the
protest of the Critic. The run of a play is not de-
termined by the criticisms. The opinion of the
Critic is often foreseen and defied ; but neither
writer, manager, nor actor can foretell the verdict
of the "Voice," — favorable often when least ex-
pected ; adverse often when least deserved.
But in art the "Voice" — stentorian in literature
and the drama — sinks to a whisper so diffident that
it cannot be heard amidst the trumpetings of the
Critics.
The Critics — those whose business it was to write
and talk about art — ridiculed Whistler, not the
"Voice." Left wholly to itself, it is quite likely the
"Voice" would have found much that it liked in the
beautiful combinations of tones and colors, for there
is nothing inherently repulsive in Whistler's work, as
in much other that Critics command the "Voice"
to praise ; on the contrary, his paintings are exceed-
ingly restful to the eye, and exceedingly attractive
as schemes of color if nothing else. The " Voice,"
1 66
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
left to itself, would say, " I do not understand them,
but I like them, — just as I like music, without know-
ing much about it."
But the " Voice" — independent enough in litera-
ture, the drama, and even in music — dares not lisp
in art until the Critic speaks. Then the " Voice"
praises what he praises, condemns what he con-
demns, until the secret purchases and growing de-
mand for the outcast confound both Critic and
echoing "Voice." Then the ''Voice" turns — as it
has in the case of Whistler — and rends the Critics,
unless those agile gentlemen change sides and praise
what they formerly condemned.
Too bad that Whistler attributed the "Voice" of
the Critic to that long-suffering animal — the Public,
which, if often wrong, is always honest, and, in all
but art — vociferous.
Concerning his habit of persistently impaling the
critics, a writer says : *
" We wish that the catalogue did not, for the tenth time,
contain quotations from all the dull things which bewildered
criticism has said about him. Mr. Whistler is a wit, and
should recollect that the same old joke must not be told too
often to the same old audience."
But where is the joke? In the criticisms or in
their repetition ? If the criticisms were serious, then
repetition is doubly serious.
1 Saturday Review, March 26, 1892, p. 357.
167
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
Nor is it "the same old audience," but each year,
each hour, a new audience. Of all the English-
speaking people not one in a million have ever
heard the joke ; and if joke there be, it is surely
a gracious act to make it known.
The far-seeing publisher deftly detaches the favor-
able comment from uncongenial context and prints
it boldly on the fly-leaf of the volume. Why should
not author or painter print his page of deprecia-
tions that, as Whistler says, " history maybe cleanly
written" ? And if preserved and printed once, why
not for all time ?
The record of a people is not complete unless
their likes and dislikes be known. What would we
not give for the adverse criticisms of Shakespeare?
And there must have been many besides poor
Greene's. What would we not give for some of the
off-hand comments of his fellow-actors and his fel-
low-managers ?
The world conspires to deceive the world. The
literature of adulation is carefully conserved until
mortals, denuded of their frailties, become gods.
In the course of his career Whistler met with
many bizarre appreciations, but none more astonish-
ing than this : l
' ' To understand Mr. Whistler you must understand his
body. I do not mean that Mr. Whistler has suffered from
bad health, — his health has always been excellent ; all great
1 Moore, Modern Painting, p. 6.
168
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
artists have excellent health, but his constitution is more
nervous than robust. He is even a strong man, but he is
lacking in weight. Were he six inches taller and his bulk
proportionally increased, his art would be different."
The classification of the prize-ring into feather-,
light-, middle-, and heavy-weights makes its appear-
ance in art ; genius, like jockeys, must weigh-in and
-out. By rights, therefore, Paganini should have
played the bass-viol and Napoleon should have been
a drummer-boy. The painter must measure his
canvas by his belt, and bant the masterpiece into
shape. The gymnasium is the true school of art,
and the dumb-bell is mightier than the brush.
"For if Whistler had been six inches taller and his bulk
proportionally increased, . . . instead of having painted a
dozen portraits, — every one, even the ' Mother' and ' Miss
Alexander,' which I personally take to be the two best,
a little febrile in its extreme beauty, whilst some, master-
pieces though they be, are clearly touched with weakness
and marked with hysteria, — Mr. Whistler would have painted
a hundred portraits as strong, as vigorous, as decisive, and
as easily accomplished as any by Velasquez or Hals. ' '
This is the sort of comment that follows but
never precedes acquaintance. After knowing a
painter, it is easy to discover all his physical charac-
teristics and idiosyncrasies in his work, — so easy, in
fact, that many critics prefer to pass on books, plays,
and pictures on their merits without knowing any-
thing about the authors, the actors, or painters ; for
in the end a work must stand or fall by itself.
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RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
From an examination of the " Hermes," can this
critic give us the stature of Praxiteles? From the
"Nike" in the Louvre can he describe the unknown
master? What does the "Sistine Madonna" tell
him of the weight of Raphael, or the " Lesson in
Anatomy" of the " bulk" of Rembrandt?
A man's physical condition may be — frequently
is — reflected in his work. If he is an invalid, what
he does is apt to show it, — though Herbert Spencer
is a case to the contrary ; but his physique is another
matter. Genius is not a matter of inches. The
weight of the brain is not controlled by the size of
the body; still more independent is the organization
and development of the brain.
If a man have strength and health — and these the
critic concedes to Whistler — his work may be the
work of a giant
One of the greatest and strongest of Germany's
living artists is almost a dwarf ; the most virile painter
in America to-day is short and slight.
The same critic, referring to the letters in the
"Gentle Art," says, "If Mr. Whistler had the bull-
like health of Michael Angelo, Rubens, Hals, the
letters would never have been written." But, as a
matter of fact, Angelo was "a man of more than
usually nervous temperament." As any one at all
familiar with his career, his many controversies, his
voluminous letters, well knows, "his temperament
exposed him to sudden outbursts of scorn and anger
170
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
which brought him now and then into violent col-
lision with his neighbors." His habit of ridiculing
and annoying his fellow-pupils invited the blow from
Pietro Torrigiano which gave him his broken nose.
He was a weakly child and suffered two illnesses in
manhood, but by carefully refraining from all ex-
cesses he regained and preserved his health. " His
countenance always showed a good and wholesome
color. Of stature he is as follows : height middling,
broad in the shoulders ; the rest of the body some-
what slender in proportion."
The foregoing scarcely bears out the sweeping
generalization that "the greatest painters, I mean
the very greatest, — Michael Angelo, Velasquez, and
Rubens, — were gifted by nature with as full a meas-
ure of health as of genius. Their physical consti-
tutions resembled more those of bulls than of
men."
As for Velasquez, who can speak authoritatively
for him ?
While the physical characteristics of geniuses are
habitually exaggerated, and the weak, the nervous,
the delicate are made well and strong and "like
bulls" in the enthusiasm of appreciation or the exi-
gencies of theory, it would not be difficult to point
out in history, art, and literature innumerable in-
stances of men whose achievements afford no indi-
cations whatsoever of their bodily make up, — in
fact, it is common experience that neither poet nor
painter ever corresponds with preconceived notions,
171
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
and to meet the one or the other is to court disen-
chantment.
If Whistler had been six inches taller he would
not have been Angelo, or Rembrandt, or Velasquez,
but — in all probability — a soldier.
172
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
VII
Supreme as a Colorist — Color and Music — His
Susceptibility to Color — Ruskin and Color — Art
and Nature.
Supreme as a colorist, Whistler achieved fame as
an etcher long before the world acknowledged his
greatness as a painter. Even now it is the fashion
to exalt his etchings to the depreciation of his paint-
ings, — to say that he was a great artist in the one
medium but unsuccessful in the other.
The following is a fair illustration of this sort of
comment :
"Cool-headed conservatism should clarify the halo which
encircles Whistler's portraits. The periodic 'symphonies,'
•harmonies,' and 'arrangements,' in gray and green, green
and rose, purple and gold, or brown and black, have, or
had, novelty to recommend them, — more novelty, however,
than psychology. Apart from one or two, they are little
beyond essays in subdued Japonisme with subtle dashes of
Velasquez. The portrait of his mother alone shows adequate
depth, for the overlauded Carlyle is merely a male replica of
the single canvas wherein the artist seemed to lose — and to
find — himself. It is not in portraiture, but in etching and
lithography, that Whistler has disclosed the validity of his
talent." 1
1 The Critic, vol. xxxviii. p. 32, January, 1901
173
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
To which may be added the following comments
since his death from leading American papers :
' ' Whistler in earlier life was a real etcher, easily the first
of the nineteenth century. The number of his plates of the
best quality is comparatively small. He soon lost his power
or the incentive to execute it. His hand degenerated, his
work became trivial and insincere. As a painter none of his
pictures will ever explain to posterity the reputation, or the
apparent reputation, that he enjoyed during his lifetime."
' ' It is, however, as an etcher rather than as a painter that
Whistler will be remembered."
"Thus, setting aside the portraits of his mother, of
Thomas Carlyle, Lady Campbell, and Miss Alexander,
and the startling 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver,' and the
' Arrangement in Black, ' it might be possible to count upon
the fingers of one hand the finest examples of his brush."
Many others of similar import might be gathered,
but the foregoing suffice. In reading them it should
not be forgotten that the etchings, which are now
praised without reserve, passed through the same
stages of depreciation through which the paintings
are passing ; so that, guided by the parallel, it is
reasonable to expect the complete acceptance of the
latter as masterpieces in the near future.
Broadly speaking, the order of acceptance has
been :
First. Etchings and lithographs.
Second. Portraits.
Third. Color harmonies, — such as many of his
figure-pieces, marines, nocturnes, and pure color
compositions generally, none of which is fully
accepted, some of which are scarcely known, and
i74
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
all of which are misunderstood, in spite of his many
explicit words of explanation.
Such has been the order of general acceptance
of his work ; but the order of real merit is almost
precisely reversed.
Whistler stands supreme, —
First as a colorist.
Secondly as a painter of portraits.
Thirdly as an etcher and lithographer.
As an etcher comparisons are drawn between him
and Rembrandt.
As a painter of portraits comparisons are drawn
between him and Velasquez.
As a colorist he is beyond comparison save with
the masters of the far East.
In etching and lithography and the painting of
portraits he, at most, simply did as well or better
what others have done before ; but in the composi-
tion of harmonies of color to please the eye, as
harmonies of sound please the ear, he accomplished
results which are unique.
What he did with the needle is not so wholly and
absolutely unlike all that had been done before as
to render comparisons impossible ; whereas with the
brush in his domain of color Whistler stands alone.
His art was his own ; he painted like no other man
dead or living.
His etchings were so fine, so subtle, that the world
had difficulty in comprehending them ; but it did
learn to like them, and that, too, at a comparatively
early date. But even now his pictures are fully
175
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
understood by no one ; and yet they have had a pro-
founder influence upon the art of to-day than those
of any other master.
He opened the door of the East to the painters
of the West and showed them how they might paint
after the manner of the best there is in the Oriental
world, and not only retain, but accentuate their own
individualities.
The secret of Whistler's art, as of all great art, is
that it was the absolutely true and unaffected expres-
sion of his convictions and of his impressions of the
life and world about him ; and his impressions and
convictions in the domain of color, like those of
Beethoven in the world of sound, were worth re-
cording.
He is to color what Beethoven is to sound, and
his distinguishing merit is that of all the men of his
century or of many preceding centuries he was the
only one to treat color as a composer of music treats
sound, — as material for the arrangement of harmonies
to please the eye as music pleases the ear.
When Burne-Jones, in the Ruskin suit, was asked
if he saw any art quality in "The Falling Rocket,"
he apologetically said, " I must speak the truth, you
know," and then testified: "It has fine color and
atmosphere," but of detail and composition "abso-
lutely none."
As if the shower of fire of a falling rocket against
the blackness of night could have sharp detail and
composition ; as if anything were possible beyond
176
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
"fine color and atmosphere ;" and color and atmos-
phere are all Whistler intended. " My whole
scheme," he himself testified, "was only to bring
about a certain harmony of color," and, according
to the only decently qualified witness for the other
side, he succeeded.
Even Frith, the painter of " Derby Day" and the
"Rake's Progress," said, "There is a pretty color
which pleases the eye, but there is nothing more."
Why should there be anything more, if to please
the eye were the painter's sole intention ? Is it not
as legitimate to please the eye with compositions of
color, otherwise meaningless, as it is to please the
ear with compositions of sound ?
Profoundly speaking, color has no other object
than to please the eye. The story should be told, the
moral pointed, in black and white. The use of color
imitatively, or to accentuate the characterization, is
as base as the use of sound imitatively.
Color is to the eye precisely what sound is to the
ear, and the highest use to which either can be put
is the production of pure, not to say abstract, har-
monies for the satisfaction of its respective sense.
As long ago as 1868 Swinburne, in a pamphlet on
the Royal Academy exhibition of that year, said :
' ' No task is harder than this translation from color into
speech, when the speech must be so hoarse and feeble, when
the color is so subtle and sublime. Music and verse might
strike some string accordant in sound to such painting, but a
version such as this is a psalm of Tate's to a psalm of
177
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
David's. In all of the main strings touched are certain
varying chords of blue and white, not without interludes of
the bright and tender tones of floral purple or red. They
all have immediate beauty, they all give the delight of
natural things ; they seem to have grown as a flower grows,
not in any forcing house of ingenious and laborious cunning.
This is, in my eyes, a special quality of Mr. Whistler's
genius ; a freshness and fulness of the loveliest life of
things, with a high, clear power upon them which seems to
educe a picture as the sun does a blossom or a fruit."
In language too plain for the slightest misunder-
standing he has himself told the world precisely
what he meant his pictures to be, but the world will
not take him at his word.
Nearly thirty years ago, when the people wondered
at his calling his works " symphonies," "arrange-
ments," "harmonies," and "nocturnes," he wrote :
"The vast majority of English folk cannot and will not
consider a picture apart from any story which it may be
supposed to tell.
"My picture of a ' Harmony in Gray and Gold' is an
illustration of my meaning, — a snow-scene with a single
black figure and a lighted tavern. I care nothing for the
past, present, or future of the black figure, placed there be-
cause the black was wanted at that spot. All that I know is
that my combination of gray and gold is the basis of the
picture. Now, this is precisely what my friends cannot
grasp.
' ' They say, ' Why not call it * ' Trotty Veck, ' ' and sell it for
a round harmony of golden guineas ?' naively acknowledging
that without baptism there is no . . . market !" l
Gentle Art, p. 126.
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OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
And farther on he said :
"As music is the poetry of sound, so is painting the
poetry of sight, and the subject-matter has nothing to do
with harmony of sound or color.
" The great musicians knew this. Beethoven and the rest
wrote music, — simply music ; symphony in this key, con-
certo or sonata in that.
"On F or G they constructed celestial harmonies, — as
harmonies, — combinations evolved from the chorus of F or
G and their minor correlatives.
" This is pure music as distinguished from airs, — common-
place and vulgar in themselves, but interesting from their
associations, — as, for instance, ' Yankee Doodle, or ' Partant
pour la Syrie.'
" Art should be independent of all clap-trap, should stand
alone, and appeal to the artistic sense of eye or ear, without
confounding this with emotions entirely foreign to it, as de-
votion, pity, love, patriotism, and the like. All these have
no kind of concern with it ; and that is why I insist on calling
my works ' arrangements' and ' harmonies. ' " *
And concerning the portrait of his mother, which
nearly every one admires for the subject while few
pause to consider the color, he wrote :
' ' Take the picture of my mother, exhibited at the Royal
Academy as an ' Arrangement in Gray and Black.' Now,
that is what it is. To me it is interesting as a picture of my
mother ; but what can or ought the public to care about the
identity of the portrait ?' ' 2
Within these few lines are contained Whistler's
whole philosophy of art, his convictions and his
1 Gentle Art, pp. 127, 128. 2 Ibid., p. 128.
179
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
intentions ; the words are so plain a child may read
and comprehend their meaning, and yet people will
not understand him.
Whistler's art was purely sensuous, as the finest
music is sensuous. He had no interest whatsoever
in the many problems of life and death, in the story
of any person or the traditions of any place.
He had less interest in the associations connected
with Old Battersea Bridge than the boatman lazily
floating by ; but at certain hours and under certain
conditions, at twilight or at dusk, or in the fog, it
made a long, tremulous line which pleased him, and
he painted it.
The fact that the Thames bounds English his-
tory was of no consequence to him ; but the muddy
river between lines of buildings and wharves and
shipping, and covered by boats and crossed by
bridges, furnished him endless compositions in line
and color.
The glory and the romance of Venice made no
impression on his art ; but in out-of-the-way places,
where others saw nothing, he found scenes which
inspired his etchings.
As an etcher and a lithographer Whistler played
with the mystery of line, as in painting he played
with the mystery of color.
There is an art of pure line as there is an art of
pure form and of pure color. It is just as possible
to make a lot of meaningless lines which please the
eye in their curves and endless variety as it is to
please the eye with combinations of colors.
180
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
Decorative patterns and designs, aside from
color, are simply line harmonies.
A child loves to make straight and round and
curved lines upon slate or paper.
The eye follows lines with a delight akin to that
taken in form and color.
When the Savoy Hotel was in process of con-
struction, and the great steel beams thrust them-
selves upward towards the sky, and there was a
lattice-work of girders and a veritable song of line,
Whistler, seeing it one day from a neighboring win-
dow, exclaimed :
" Hurry ; where are my things ? I must etch
that now, for it will never again be so beautiful."
High buildings, mechanical processes, modern
costumes had no terrors for him, simply because he
had no sentiment concerning them ; if they fur-
nished him beauties of line or color he cared not
whether they were new or old.
Whistler's art was as devoid of sentiment as that
of a Japanese.
To our Western notions the everlasting convention
that serves for a face in Japanese art seems hope-
lessly monotonous. To them our painstaking char-
acterization of the features and peculiarities of each
person is no art at all, but grotesque caricature ;
it is the subordination of art which is of universal
interest to the eccentricities of the individual which
are of local interest.
In Whistler's art one must not look for any solu-
181
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
tion of the problems of life, for any sign of the
emotions which control human conduct, — for love
and hate and fear, for hope and ambition, for the
tortures of jealousy or the bitterness of despair, —
these are all absent ; his art is pure and serene. His
works are to painting what the "Ode to a Grecian
Urn" or " A Midsummer Night's Dream" is to
poetry, and hence in human interest they fall far
short of the tragedies, the epics, the romances of
literature and art, and they must not be judged by
standards he did not seek to emulate. He could no
more have painted a "Crucifixion" or a "Last
Judgment" than he could have carved the "Moses"
or written " Hamlet." In every sense, save that of
abstract beauty of line and color, other painters
have excelled Whistler, but as the master of pure
line and color harmonies he is supreme.
Whistler's etchings and lithographs were simply
compositions in line, delightful harmonies in black
and white. It is too bad to preserve their names or
identify them with any locality, for their exquisite
art is better appreciated if no distracting considera-
tion is aroused. But, oddly enough, he occasionally
made concessions in the naming of these that he
did not in the naming of his paintings.
Take, for instance, that charming lithograph,
"Confidences in the Garden," — two ladies walking
in the corner of an old garden. The garden is in
the rear of his Paris home on the Rue du Bac. The
ladies are probably Mrs. Whistler and her sister. But
182
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
what does it add to the print to call it "Confidences
in the Garden" ? Nothing at all. On the contrary,
the title at once suggests a host of considerations
which conflict with the abstract enjoyment of the
composition.
That sort of a title is precisely what he condemns
for his paintings. It is, however, one of the very
few instances where his titles suggest anything more
than the obvious subject. For the most part he was
consistent in choosing names that do not distract.
Even the portraits he did not care to have known
as "Portrait of Mr. A ," or " Portrait of Lady
C ," thereby catering first to the vanity of a sit-
ter, then to the idle curiosity of the multitude. His
portraits were compositions in line and color, and,
as such, were artistic creations. That they happened
also to be portraits of certain individuals was a
mere coincidence. The portrait feature, upon which
people lay so much stress, was of the least conse-
quence to him ; and just because he did not permit
the photographic element to move him, he secured
results which are far beyond the art of the "por-
trait-painter."
The sense of color is so lost to painters, as well as
to laymen, that to talk of color compositions as one
speaks of sound compositions is to challenge doubt
and occasion surprise. And yet there is a music of
color even as there is a music of sound, and there
should be a delight in color composition even as
there is a delight in sound composition ; and this
183
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
delight should be something fundamentally distinct
from any interest in the subject of the composition.
The subject may be a man, or a woman, or a field,
or a tree, or a wave, or a cloud, or just nothing at all
— mere masses or streaks of color ; the perfection or
the imperfection of the color arrangement remains
the same.
That the color-sense is lost to laymen, critics, and
painters is evidenced by the ridicule that for thirty
years was heaped upon Whistler for calling his pic-
tures " harmonies," " symphonies," "nocturnes,"
etc. ; for adopting the more or less abstract nomen-
clature of sound compositions — music — to describe
color compositions.
One paper described them as " some figure pieces,
which this artist exhibits as ' harmonies' in this, that,
or the other, being, as they are, mere rubs-in of
color, have no claims to be regarded as pictures."
Another says, "A dark bluish surface, with dots on
it, and the faintest adumbrations of shape under the
darkness, is gravely called a ' Nocturne in Black and
Gold.'" Again, "Two of Mr. Whistler's 'color-
symphonies,' a ' Nocturne in Blue and Gold,' and a
'Nocturne in Black and Gold.' If he did not ex-
hibit these as pictures under peculiar and, what
seems to most people, pretentious titles they would
be entitled to their due meed of admiration. But
they only come one step nearer pictures than deli-
cately graduated tints on a wall-paper do."
And so in endless iteration and reiteration.
It never occurred to either painters or critics to
184
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
judge the pictures as if they were in reality so
many " delicately graduated tints on a wall-paper."
The color-sense was deficient The pictures were
judged by their composition, their subjects, — or,
rather, not appreciated at all, but condemned, on ac-
count of their titles, which expressed exactly what the
painter desired to convey, — namely, his attempts to
produce harmonies in color independently of subject.
So far from Whistler's titles being absurd, they
were so many frank attempts to tell the public what
the painter was really trying to do. He might have
been more obscure, like many a composer of music,
and simply said, " Opus I.," or " Opus XX.," and so
on. He did call three of his early pictures "Sym-
phony in White, No. I.," " Symphony in White, No.
II.," and "Symphony in White, No. III. ;" but the
first, a full-length figure, was also known as the
"White Girl" of the "Salon des Refuses," 1863;
the second, a three-quarter length of a young girl
in white, standing by a mantel, as "The Little
White Girl ;" while the third, with no other title, is
of two girls in white.
But for the most part he chose to describe each
particular work as an arrangement of blue and sil-
ver, or black and gray, or flesh-color and brown,
according to the predominating tones of the compo-
sition, thereby aiding the eye of the observer.
There are beauties of form devoid of color ;
There are beauties of color devoid of form ;
There are beauties of form and color combined.
185
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
Of the foregoing the first is familiar in sculpture,
and the third is familiar in painting, but the second
is scarcely observed at all, though color without
form is found wherever color is used decoratively.
The ordinary house-painter endeavors to secure
agreeable effects by the mere arrangement of colors.
The interior-decorator endeavors — for the most part
with disastrous results — to secure agreeable effects
by the mere distribution of color. In a crude way
the house-painter, the sign-painter, the decorator,
the dyer, the dress-maker, are all color-composers,
their object being to produce harmonies in color
quite irrespective of line and form. They know
nothing about drawing, they know nothing about
modelling, but they try to please the eye by color
arrangements.
To rightly understand the color-sense let us briefly
consider the matter from its scientific side.
The ear has a range of musical sounds of from
sixteen and one-half air-vibrations per second — the
note of the lowest pipe of the great organ — to four
thousand seven hundred and fifty-two vibrations per
second, the highest note of the piccolo of the
orchestra, — a range of about eight octaves.
Below sixteen and one-half vibrations per second,
and above four thousand seven hundred and fifty-
two, — as high, in fact, as forty thousand, — sounds
are audible, but not musical, being either too low
and throbbing or two high and piercing to be
agreeable.
186
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
In all countries this range of musical sounds is
divided into octaves, — the octave of any given note
having simply double the number of air-vibrations.
At the present time, in the Western world, each
octave is divided, as every one knows, into twelve
intervals, indicated on the piano by the seven white
keys and the five black.
For instance, the middle C of the piano has two
hundred and sixty-four vibrations per second, the C
above has, of course, just double, or five hundred
and twenty-eight vibrations per second. In the
chromatic scale these two hundred and sixty-four
vibrations, which make this octave, are divided into
only twelve intervals, an average of twenty-two
vibrations to the interval. In the octave above the
average would be twice that, or forty-four, and so
on doubling to the end.
There is a change in pitch with the addition of
so much as a fraction of a vibration per second.
As a matter of fact, musicians can detect the varia-
tion of pitch caused by the difference of half a
vibration per second in the middle octaves ; the
power to detect changes in pitch due to fractional
changes in vibrations decreasing towards the bass
and treble.
With this power of discriminating a thousand
degrees of pitch in a single octave the Western
world is content to arbitrarily and mechanically
divide the octave into but twelve tones and semi-
tones.
The Arabic octave contains twenty- four quarter-
187
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
tones, and Oriental nations generally take cogni-
zance of intervals so small they seem to us discords.
Helmholtz requested a distinguished musician to
investigate this matter in Cairo, and this is the
report :
"This evening I have been listening attentively to the
song on the minarets, to try to appreciate the quarter-tones,
which I had not supposed to exist, as I had thought that the
Arabs sang out of tune. But to-day as I was with the der-
vishes I became certain that such quarter-tones existed, and
for the following reasons : Many passages in litanies of this
kind end with a tone which was at first the quarter-tone and
ended in the pure tone. As the passage was frequently re-
peated, I was able to observe this every time, and I found
the intonation invariable. ' ' x
All of which goes to show how susceptible the
highly-trained ear is to fine gradations and combina-
tions of sound and how easy it is to become accus-
tomed to coarse intervals when the finer are no
longer used.
The various notes as sounded by a great variety
of musical instruments constitute the raw material
from which the composer and performer produce
melodies and harmonies absolutely unknown to
nature, and which — judged by the only possible
standard, their emotional and intellectual effects —
are incomparably finer than any sounds in nature,
1 Helmholtz, Sensations of Tone, p. 265.
188
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
finer because a human utterance, the play of soul
upon soul.
The eye has a range of color-notes from four
hundred millions of millions of ether-vibrations per
second, the rate of the deepest red of the spectrum,
to seven hundred and fifty millions of millions, the
rate of the violet rays. The following table of
vibration rates of the colors of the spectrum shows
the vibration intervals which divide the pronounced
colors : l
Color-sensation. Ether-vibrations per second.
Deep red 400 millions of millions.
Red-orange 437 " "
Yellow-orange 457 " "
Yellow 509 " "
Green 570 " "
Blue-green 617 " "
Blue-violet 696
Violet 750 " "
This color-scale, as produced by a great variety
of agents, — such as colored lights, glass, stones,
metals, fabrics, dyes, stains, pigments, etc., — consti-
tutes the raw material from which the color-com-
poser, painter, and decorator produce melodies
and harmonies absolutely unknown to nature, and,
judged as musical sounds are judged, are incom-
parably finer than effects in nature, because essen-
1 Fleming, Waves and Ripples in Water, Air, and ^Ether,
p. 252.
189
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
tially human, because produced by man for their
emotional and intellectual effect upon man.
Theoretically the variation of a single ether-vibra-
tion per second changes the shade of the color ; but
while the trained ear can detect the variation in
pitch due to a half-vibration of air per second more
or less, ether-vibrations are so incomparably more
rapid that the best the trained eye can do is detect
about one thousand different tints in the spectrum.
In other words, there must be an increase or de-
crease of three hundred and fifty thousand millions
of ether-vibrations before even the practised eye is
consciously affected.
It is, however, altogether likely that while the
eye is not consciously affected without these great
variations in frequency, it is unconsciously affected,
and susceptibility to and skill in handling color
depend upon this unconscious susceptibility.
It is pretty well established that the range of
color-vision cannot be materially extended below
the red or above the violet by practice, but suscep-
tibility to color variations and the ability to distin-
guish gradations of tone within the scale can be
increased almost indefinitely.
Education of the color-sense is the development
of this unconscious susceptibility, — of the feeling
for, as distinguished from a knowledge of, color.
A man may know all about color and have no
feeling for it. On the other hand, a man may be
singularly susceptible to color-effects without being
able to name correctly a dozen shades.
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OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
Nothing educates the color-sense so much as
steady contemplation of color-harmonies in nature
and art. But unless a man possesses an instinctive
feeling for color he will never select the best ex-
amples ; whereas if his eye is exceedingly suscepti-
ble he will intuitively cling to the best the world
affords.
Whistler was gifted with susceptibility to color in
an extraordinary degree. Where, by way of illustra-
tion, the untrained eye can distinguish one or two
hundred shades of color in the spectrum and the
highly-trained eye a thousand, Whistler could prob-
ably distingush two thousand, and possibly feel as
many more.
In fact, so keen was his susceptibility to color
that intervals — to use, very legitimately, the musical
term — quite imperceptible to others affected him
greatly.
The neck-tie of a sitter once caused him no end
of trouble.
The suit the sitter was wearing was of a light-
brown tone; the ulster was of a darker Scotch
plaid, — all softened in tone by time and wear. In
so many shades of brown it certainly seemed to the
casual eye that the shade of the brown silk tie the
sitter had on found a place. But, no; to Whistler it
was a discordant note, though half hidden by the
garments. All available ties were exhausted, — even
those of friends and neighboring artists were levied
191
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
upon. Others could see nothing inharmonious in
many of the ties that were tried ; but they made
Whistler positively uncomfortable, — just as uncom-
fortable as the leader of an orchestra is when an in-
strument plays a discord ; and it was not until the
" Bon Marche" had been ransacked — for, not ties,
but simply fabrics in shades of brown — that a piece
was found that would answer.
Then, mark you, the brown of the tie was by no
means reproduced in the portrait, but the brown as
modified by all the browns and notes of the entire
costume, and as still further modified by all the
browns and all the notes and shades and lights of
the studio.
During this search for a note of brown — a search
which seemed to the sitter, and even to artist friends,
finical in the extreme — the great painter one after-
noon justified himself by showing some little pastel
sketches of a model with bits of transparent drapery
floating about her. The sketches were on coarse
brown board, and about ten or twelve inches high
by five or six wide, and there were just a few strokes
of almost imperceptible color to indicate the flesh
tones and the draperies, all so slight as to scarce
attract notice ; and yet each of the filmy bits of
drapery had been dyed by the painter with as much
care to secure the desired notes as he would take in
painting a portrait.
No one who has not seen him at work can form
any adequate notion of his extreme susceptibility
to infinitesimal variations of color ; it exceeded that
193
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
of any painter of whom the Western world has suffi-
cient record for comparison.
A Frenchman has said :
' ' Whistler's works are dreams of color. The gray of them
is unique. It is made of white, blue, green, of all the tints.
It is the tender gray of England's coasts, of the North Sea,
and of the sky that in summer is above it ; the horizon gray
where the pale blue of the sky and the pale green of the sea
unite and form one.
"It is a subtle shade, in accord with the penumbras in
which he delighted. He was the musician of the rainbow.
No one understood as well as he the mysterious relations of
painting and of music, the seven notes and the seven colors,
and the way to play these with the sharps and flats of the
prism. Even as a symphony is in D or a sonata is in A, his
pictures were orchestrated according to a tone, — the ' Lady
with the Iris,' for example, a mauve flower placed in the
hand of the figure, as a note and signifying that the portrait
was to be a colored polyphony of lilac and of violets.
"More precision is lent to this curious aesthetic by the
titles that he gave to certain small canvases representing
twilights of Venice and of London, which he entitled ' Noc-
turnes,' in a parallel with those of Chopin, but of a Chopin
serene and who dreams instead of a Chopin ill and who
weeps. There, as in portraits, the gray of England's coasts
appears, but bluer. It has in portraits the tints of twilight
in ashes. In all his works he reveals the land of his origin,
the land that has produced Edgar Allan Poe. ' '
Many stories are told illustrating his suscepti-
bility to color. Some of them are pointless ; but
the fact they are told at all shows how this trait im-
pressed both the artists and the public.
" One morning he had an engagement at a banker's, where
he was to receive a large sum of money for a set of etchings,
13 193
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
a sum that he happened to need very much at that time.
He was busy chatting and showing some of his things to an
appreciative visitor, who happened to know the circum-
stances, and considerately reminded him that he had far to
go and that the American would probably be in a hurry and
would not wait.
" 'Yes,' said Whistler ; 'but just look at this now,' pulling
forward another canvas. And so it went on, until his friend
said : ' Whistler, you really must go ! That man will never
wait for you. '
" 'What a nuisance you are !' he exclaimed ; but he got
ready, and they started.
' ' They were tearing down the street at a great rate, when
Whistler suddenly stopped the cab and made the driver go
back to a certain spot, — and they had to go backwards and
forwards for quite a while before they found the exact place,
— in order to get a view of a certain little green-grocer's shop,
with his fruit and vegetables outside, striped awnings, etc.
' ' Whistler put up his hands for a frame, squinted and
twisted. 'Beautiful!' he exclaimed. 'Lovely! I'm going
to do that ; but I think I'll have him move the oranges over
to the right more, and that green, now — let me see '
"'Whistler!' cried his friend, 'do come along! That
man will be home in New York before we get there !'
" 'What a nuisance you are !' declared W T histler, and was
sulky the rest of the way.
" It was not a pose. The painter was so enchanted by what
he saw that banker and money were nothing to him at that
moment. ' '
And it is said a visitor once found him at work in
his studio.
" The furniture was of a pale gray ; the hangings
were of the same color ; the window shades were
of gray ; the model a woman with gray eyes, wear-
194
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
ing a gray costume ; and the costume of the painter
was also of the same prevailing color.
" Whistler refused to talk with his visitor until he
had removed his flaming red cravat ; and, after a
few minutes' conversation, commented upon the
fact that the tone values of his coat and trousers
were out of harmony."
An exaggeration, but it all might have occurred ;
for has he not himself described, in " Gentle Art,"
how the loud dress of a critic destroyed his exhibi-
tion. "To have seen him, O, my wise Atlas, was
my privilege and my misery, — for he stood under
one of my own 'harmonies,' already with diffi-
culty gasping its gentle breath, himself an amazing
'arrangement' in strong mustard-and-cress, with
bird's-eye belcher of Reckitt's blue, and then and
there destroyed absolutely, unintentionally, and
once for all, my year's work !"
The analogy between the musical scale and the
color scale has been many times noted.
Helmholtz l draws the following analogy :
F % End of the red.
G Red.
G# Red.
A Red.
A # Orange-red.
B Orange.
1 Physiological Optics, p. 237.
195
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
c Yellow.
c jf Green.
d Greenish-blue.
d # Cyanogen-blue.
e Indigo-blue.
f Violet.
f % Violet.
g Ultra-violet.
g % Ultra-violet.
a Ultra-violet.
a J Ultra-violet.
b End of the solar spectrum.
There is, of course, this fundamental difference
between the two senses : the action of air-waves
upon the ear is mechanical, simply a succession of
beats, while the action of ether-waves upon the
retina is chemical in its character.
The true analogy lies in the simple fact that the
ear is susceptible to certain sounds produced by air-
waves of certain frequencies, while the eye is sus-
ceptible to certain colors produced by ether-waves
of certain frequencies, and it is possible to mechani-
cally combine in one case the sounds so as to pro-
duce harmonies that please the ear, and in the other
case the colors so as to produce harmonies that
please the eye ; and so far as pure sound and pure
color is concerned, the harmonious compositions
need have no relation, imitative or otherwise, to
anything in nature.
The uneducated ear prefers melodies which are
more or less suggestive of sounds heard in nature, —
196
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
more or less realistic imitations of songs of birds,
rippling of waters, falling of rain, rustling of leaves,
crashing of thunder, etc. ; or if familiar sounds are
not imitated, the title of the composition must sug-
gest some incident, place, or scene more or less
familiar, so the deficient ear may be helped out by
the imagination.
The highly-trained ear, on the other hand, delights
in abstract compositions of sound, in harmonies
which have no perceptible relation to any sound in
nature, and which do not suggest any person, scene,
or incident in literature or history.
The purer the taste in music the more abstract the
compositions that satisfy.
So far as the appreciation of color harmonies is
concerned, the taste of the Western world is like unto
that of the uneducated ear in music.
We are not content with pure color compositions
as we are with pure sound, but we demand either
imitations of natural objects or representations of
historical, literary, religious, or emotional subjects.
We must have something besides pure line and color.
A musician may strike a succession of notes, or a
chord, and we are pleased, the ear is satisfied ; but
if the painter simply sweeps his brush several times
across the canvas, we are not satisfied, though the
combination of colors be something more beautiful
and harmonious than anything ever seen. It is not
a " picture" to us; it lacks the "subject" to which
we are accustomed.
And yet there are in existence certain canvases
197
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
by Whistler which are little more than color-schemes,
and which in color-effects are among the most beau-
tiful things he ever painted ; and in all the galleries
of Europe there is nothing to compare with them
in pure joyousness of color.
As children and men we enjoy the color-effects
of fireworks against the blackness of night, and we
enjoy the darkness and the shadows about us, the
sudden light upon expectant faces, the dark-moving
figures in the intervals. All this is delight in color, —
color without sentiment, color without story, color
without other thought or reflection than pure sen-
suous enjoyment ; and we even feel the tawdry
cheapness of the attempt when by set arrangement
the features of some local or national celebrity are
presented. But when an artist who sees such a night-
scene and paints it in such manner that the color-
scheme is preserved and its beauty enhanced in trans-
lation, we demand something more. We demand,
as did Burne-Jones, " detail and composition," — in
short, we demand the features of our local celebrity.
Until we learn to love color, as we love music, for
its own sake, there will never be any decorations of
homes and public buildings that will be worth while.
In days long gone by, in Italy during the Renais-
sance and before, in Greece during the Golden Age,
color was enjoyed for the sake of color, regardless
of the dictates of nature. If an Italian felt like
making a background of blue or gold, he did so ;
if a Greek felt like painting and gilding his sculpture,
198
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
he did so, until the Parthenon and its contents must
have been gorgeous with color, laid on, not after the
precepts of nature, but for the most part arbitrarily,
to please the eye.
All decoration begins with nature and ends in
convention.
In this progress from birth in the imitation of
natural forms and colors to death in the rigidity of
a hard and lifeless convention there is a maturity
wherein lines and contours and colors play with
perfect freedom, original forms and models being
absorbed in the finer creations of the imagination.
Ruskin habitually confused the use of color with
the painting of light ; while in truth there is no
necessary connection at all between colorists and
lightists, — to coin a word that will very legitimately
mark a distinction.
The painting of light is the distinguishing feature
of nineteenth-century art, and Turner was the
apostle crying in the wilderness of darkness ; he
was the first to successfully attempt the realization
of sunlight. He keyed his palette up with the sun
as the objective point, while the Italians who had
influenced him had keyed theirs up simply to pro-
duce color-effects. They decorated walls and altars
and painted pictures — as a potter decorates his
earthen bowl — to please the eye.
Although Ruskin habitually speaks of Turner as
a colorist, and undoubtedly says a great many fine
things concerning color, he did not care at all for
199
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
color apart from the delineation of form. To him
color was useful only as a mode of drawing ; in
itself it was as nothing at all.
Speaking of his so-called "truths" of color, he
says :
' ' All truths of color sink at once into the second rank.
He, therefore, who has neglected a truth of form for a truth
of color has neglected a great truth for a less one.
"That color is indeed a most unimportant characteristic
of objects will be farther evident on the slightest considera-
tion. The color of plants is constantly changing with the
season, and of everything with the quality of light falling
on it ; but the nature and essence of the thing are indepen-
dent of these changes. An oak is an oak, whether green
with spring or red with winter ; a dahlia is a dahlia, whether
it be yellow or crimson ; and if some monster-hunting botanist
should ever frighten the flower blue, still it will be a dahlia ;
but let one curve of the petals, one groove of the stamens,
be wanting, and the flower ceases to be the same. ' " l
" The most convincing proof of the unimportance of color
lies in the accurate observation of the way in which any
material object impresses itself on the mind. If we look at
nature carefully we shall find that her colors are in a state
of perpetual confusion and indistinctness, while her forms, as
told by light and shade, are invariably clear, distinct, and
speaking. The stones and gravel of the bank catch green
reflections from the boughs above ; the bushes receive grays
and yellows from the ground ; every hairbreadth of polished
surface gives a little bit of the blue sky or the gold of the sun,
like a star upon the local color ; this local color, changeful
and uncertain in itself, is again disguised and modified by
the hue of the light or quenched in the gray of the shadow ;
and the confusion and blending of tint is altogether so great
Modern Painters, vol. i., partii., sec. i., chap, v., par. 3.
200
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
that were we left to find out what objects were by their colors
only, we would scarcely in places distinguish the boughs of a
tree from the air beyond them or the ground beneath them.
"We shall see hereafter, in considering ideas of beauty,
that color, even as a source of pleasure, is feeble compared to
form. But this we cannot insist upon at present, — we have
only to do with simple truth ; and the observations we have
made are sufficient to prove that the artist who sacrifices or
forgets a truth of form in the pursuit of a truth of color sac-
rifices what is definite to what is uncertain and what is
essential to what is accidental." 1
' ' It is, indeed, by this that the works of Turner are
peculiarly distinguished from those of all other colorists, — by
the dazzling intensity, namely, of the light which he sheds
through every hue, and which, far more than their brilliant
color, is the real source of their overpowering effect upon the
eye, an effect so reasonably made the subject of perpetual
animadversion, as if the sun which they represent were a
quiet, and subdued, and gentle, and manageable luminary,
and never dazzled anybody, under any circumstances what-
soever. I am fond of standing by a bright Turner in the
Academy, to listen to the unintentional compliments of the
crowd, — 'What a glaring thing !' * I declare I can't look at
it !' ' Don't it hurt your eyes ?' — expressed as if they were in
the constant habit of looking the sun full in the face with
the most perfect comfort and entire facility of vision. It is
curious after hearing people malign some of Turner's noble
passages of light to pass to some really ungrammatical and
false pictures of the old masters in which we have color given
without light. ' ' J
"What I am next about to say with respect to Turner's
color I should wish to be received with caution, as it admits
1 Modern Painters, vol. i., partii., sec. i., chap, v., par. 8, 9.
2 Ibid., sec. ii., chap, ii., par. 12.
201
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
of dispute. I think that the first approach to viciousness of
color in any master is commonly indicated chiefly by a prev-
alence of purple and an absence of yellow. I think nature
mixes yellow with almost every one of her hues, never, or
very rarely, using red without it, but frequently using yellow
with scarcely any red ; and I believe it will be in consequence
found that her favorite opposition, that which generally char-
acterizes and gives tone to her color, is yellow and black,
passing, as it retires, into white and blue. It is beyond dis-
pute that the great fundamental opposition of Rubens is yel-
low and black, and that on this, concentrated in one part
of the picture and modified in various grays throughout,
chiefly depend the tones of all his finest works. And in
Titian, though there is a far greater tendency to the purple
than in Rubens, I believe no red is ever mixed with the pure
blue, or glazed over it, which has not in it a modifying quan-
tity of yellow. At all events, I am nearly certain that what-
ever rich and pure purples are introduced locally by the great
colorists nothing is so destructive of all fine color as the
slightest tendency to purple in general tone ; and I am
equally certain that Turner is distinguished from all the
vicious colorists of the present day by the foundation of all
his tones being black, yellow, and the intermediate grays,
while the tendency of our common glare- seekers is invariably
to pure, cold, impossible purples. ' '
' ' Powerful and captivating and faithful as his color is, it
is the least important of all his excellences, because it is the
least important feature of nature. He paints in color, but
he thinks in light and shade ; and, were it necessary, rather
than lose one line of his forms or one ray of his sunshine,
would, I apprehend, be content to paint in black and white
to the end of his life. ' ' l
1 Modern Painters, vol. i., part ii., sec. ii., chap, ii., par.
17, 20.
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OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
For practical purposes truths of form are more
essential than ' truths' of color ; to mistake the size,
shape, solidity, and texture of anything is far more
disastrous than to mistake its color. The color-
blind get on very well in the world, often without
knowing their defect ; but a person who was form-
blind would not get on at all.
The correct appreciation of form is of such vital
importance that two senses are brought to bear, — the
sense of touch — the parent sense — as well as the
sense of sight ; and without the co-operation of the
sense of touch, sight would be comparatively help-
less in recognizing solidity, texture, contours, etc.
In the appreciation of form touch gets on very well
without sight, while sight could not get on at all
without touch ; but, happily, a sense so precious is
never completely lost.
Ruskin constantly uses the phrases, "truths of
form," "truths of color," and it is apparent that by
these phrases he really means fidelity to natural
effects. With him a drawing, be it of a stone, a leaf,
a tree, a mountain, is not true unless it corresponds
to the thing in nature ; nor is a light or a shadow
or a color true unless it corresponds to the effect in
nature.
Now, so far as art is concerned, those so-called
" truths" are of the least importance.
Suppose a musician were to talk of "truths of
sound," meaning thereby the more or less faithful
imitation of the songs of birds, the rippling of
waters, the roll of thunder. Every one would
203
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
know that his art was of the most primitive char-
acter.
" Truths of sound," in the sense that Ruskin
speaks of " truths of form" and " truths of color,"
are not tolerated in music. To attain certain effects,
dramatic in character, imitations of sounds in nature
are sometimes introduced, but sparingly, and unless
with great skill the effect is disagreeable to even the
uneducated ear, and if pressed too far it becomes
grotesque.
One art is like unto another, and what are really
"truths" in one are "truths" in another. It is im-
material whether the sense of hearing, sight, or
touch is appealed to ; it does not matter whether it
is a composition of sound, of color, of line, or of
form that is under consideration, the fundamental
principles of the art are the same ; and one of the
fundamental propositions is : imitation is fatal to
pure art.
It is the business of art to improve on nature, to
take the raw materials nature furnishes — her forces,
her forms, her lines, her colors, her lights and
shadows, her sounds, her odors, her flavors — and pro-
duce from them harmonious and agreeable effects
unknown to nature.
Whistler has said :
"The imitator is a poor kind of creature. If the man
who paints only the tree or flower or other surface he sees
before him were an artist, the king of artists would be the
photographer. It is for the artist to do something beyond
this : in portrait-painting to put on canvas something more
204
A/
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
than the face the model wears for that one day, — to paint the
man, in short, as well as his features ; in arrangement of
colors to treat a flower as his key, not as his model." 1
Art begins with "truths," in the Ruskin sense,
and flowers in " harmonies," in the Whistler sense.
It begins with the concrete, with imitation, with
fidelity to natural effects, and it develops by a
process of abstraction until it attains the chaste
perfection of a Greek temple or a Beethoven sym-
phony.
Nature is never left entirely behind, and some
arts are more dependent upon her than others ; but,
generally speaking, the more abstract the art the
higher it is ; the purer and freer it is from imitation
or suggestion of natural effects, the nobler its
attainment. Because poetry and music are almost
entirely independent of nature and natural effects,
do they as arts, from one point of view, outrank
sculpture and painting.
Ruskin, of course, was by no means blind to
these considerations, and when he talked of " truths
of form" and "truths of color" he did not mean
literal imitation, but he did mean the fidelity of a
draughtsman, of a man whose eye and mind were on
the thing or effect before him ; and his great work is
one long attempt to show that Turner in his brilliant
and fanciful\compositions was still clinging close to
Gentle Art, p. 128.
205
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
nature, that he painted rocks and trees and clouds
and sunlight as they really were, and more beautifully
than any man before or since.
All of which goes to show that Turner was not
a colorist in the sense Whistler was.
The one used color as a means, the other as an
end. To the one color, like line, or like black and
white, was incidental to his composition — the com-
position, the conception, the dream, the fancy, —
in short, the subject, being all important. To the
other harmonies in color was the end in view, almost
to the exclusion in some of the nocturnes of line
and of form.
To Ruskin, even more than with Turner, color
was simply a means to an end, — the more perfect
imitation of nature ; hence his utter lack of sympa-
thy for Whistler's work.
To pure color arrangements Ruskin was blind. He
demanded a relation and significance beyond the
mere color harmony. Lines or waves of color placed
side by side arbitrarily, and with no more relation to
nature than so many notes of music, had no mean-
ing for him, whereas for Whistler they meant
practically all there is to the science and art of
color.
To Ruskin the blue hair of a Greek statue would
have seemed absurd and childish ; to the Greek it
would have been simply a color-note in the place
where it was needed to perfect the color-scheme.
So utterly wanting is the sense of color-music in
the modern world that we like our sculpture in
206
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
either ghastly marble, or, still more perversely, with
the yellow hues and dirt and dinginess wrought by
time and the elements, whereas those who created
the greatest sculpture known subdued all garish
qualities by the use of gold and bronze and color,
not imitatively, but arbitrarily, to please a highly
cultivated fancy.
From descriptions of Ruskin's home, "Brant-
wood," it is clear that he had no craving for har-
monious effects about him. Discords did not disturb
him ; he could return with no sensations of discom-
fort from the keen appreciation of natural beauties
to rooms which would be intolerable to any one
like Whistler with an instinct for proportion and
color.
The house had "a stucco classic portico in the
corner, painted and grained and heaped around
with lucky horseshoes, highly black-leaded." The
incongruity of the painting and graining — so con-
trary to all Ruskin's teachings — and black-leaded
horseshoes surprised even his friendly biographer.
His own room "he papered with naturalistic
fancies to his own taste," and on the walls were " a
Diirer engraving, some Prouts and Turners, a couple
of old Venetian heads, and Meissonier's ' Napo-
leon,' " — a typical collector's conglomeration.
The walls of the dining-room were painted "duck-
egg," whatever that color may be, and covered with
an even more heterogeneous collection of pictures,
— " the ' Doge of Gritta,' a bit saved from the great
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RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
Titian that was burnt in the fire at the Ducal
Palace in 1574 ; a couple of Tintorets ; Turner and
Reynolds, each painted by himself in youth ; Ra-
phael, by a pupil, so it is said ; portraits of old Mr.
and Mrs. Ruskin and little John and his ' boo
hills.' "
His study was " papered with a pattern specially
copied from Marco Marziali's ' Circumcision' in the
National Gallery, and hung with Turners." There
was a crimson arm-chair and a " polished-steel
fender, very unartistic," his biographer remarks ;
" red mahogany furniture, with startling shiny em-
erald leather chair-cushions ; red carpet and green
curtains." This is the sort of room wherein Ruskin
worked and wrote. It simply illustrates the truth
that it is one thing to write and talk about color and
a far different thing to really feel color.
It is the custom to call every man who paints in
high key or uses brilliant colors a colorist, as Rus-
kin called Turner and Rubens colorists ; but it is
not the mere use of color that makes a man a
colorist, but the use he makes of it, the object he
has in mind in using it.
The mechanical draughtsman and the architect
may use on their plans and designs all the known
colors, but no one would think of calling either a
colorist.
In painting still-life a man may exhaust the palette
and yet be no colorist. In painting portraits one
man may require his sitters to dress in bright colors,
208
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
another in sober blacks, grays, or browns, with the
result that one set of portraits fairly dazzle the be-
holder, while the other scarce attracts attention ; and
yet the former may not be the work of a colorist
while the latter may.
The determining factor is the attitude of the
painter towards color. If he uses color imitatively,
or as incidental to drawing, or as a means to some
end other than the production of color harmonies,
he is not a colorist ; but if his delight is in color, if
he uses color for the sake of color, for the sake of
charming the eye, as the ear is charmed by music,
then he is a colorist.
No hard and fast line of demarcation can be
drawn, since every painter is something of a color-
ist ; but between the two extremes of the painter on
one hand who uses color imitatively or as incidental
to drawing and the colorist who produces and de-
lights in pure color schemes and harmonies there is
a wide interval.
Whistler, in his love of color, approached the lat-
ter extreme ; but it was only when he practised
decoration that he could indulge his fancy without
limitations. When he brought the Leyland dining-
room into harmony with his " Princess of the Land
of Porcelain" by the use of blue and gold, line
and form — though somewhat apparent — were virtu-
ally negligible quantities ; and when he arranged
the reception-room of the house in Rue du Bac, and
his own studio, the only considerations were the
color-effects.
J 4 209
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
In his " White Girl" of 1863 Whistler began in
a large way his symphonies in color ; and while in
pictures like the "Thames in Ice," "The Music
Room," and "At the Piano" he painted along
more conventional lines, these departures were in-
frequent and in themselves exhibited his predilec-
tion for color. It was simply impossible for him to
paint any picture without making the color harmony
a prime object.
Not long after the "White Girl," which was
"Symphony in White, No. I.," followed the other
experiments in white, known as Symphonies Nos.
II. and III.
Then came — the chronological order is not im-
portant — the Japanese group, "The Princess of the
Land of Porcelain," "The Gold Screen," "The
Balcony," the " Lange Leizen," and others, in which
the figures and accessories, though still promi-
nent, were made subordinate to the brilliant color
schemes. The compositions were still obvious, but
the color incomparably more so.
Then the "Nocturnes," in which detail and com-
position were refined away, and little remained but
color-effects so exquisite that they seemed, and still
seem, beyond the power of brush, and more like
some thin glazes and enamels than paintings on
canvas.
As music in color the "Nocturnes" and certain
of the "Harmonies" and "Symphonies," wherein
detail is as nothing and the color everything, are
Whistler's most exquisite — the word is used ad-
210
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
visedly — achievements. Others will equal his por-
traits before they equal his "Nocturnes."
As a still further step towards pure color compo-
sition he had in mind for years a series of pictures,
pure creations of fancy, somewhat suggestive of the
Japanese group, but less realistic — just color-music.
Happily, the sketches are in existence, and afford
some indication of the color-dreams that floated
through the great painter's imagination. They show
how musical color is when freed from entangling
associations and used broadly and decoratively.
We have, then, the following phases, rather than
" periods," in his mastery of color :
1. That wherein composition and detail predomi-
nate, though color is the motive.
2. That wherein composition and detail are still
conspicuous, but are subordinate to the color
scheme.
3. That wherein composition and detail are
practically lost in the effort to produce subtle color
harmonies.
4. That wherein the sole object is color-music,
quite regardless of other considerations.
This progress from the, so to speak, tentative use
of color in connection with more or less conven-
tional composition to the triumph of color and sup-
pression of composition is abundantly illustrated in
his works. It would not be difficult to arrange an
exhibition of four groups of about three canvases
each, which would illustrate each phase. Such an
211
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
exhibition would do more to enlighten the public
regarding his work than any number of exhibitions
of a large number of pictures gathered and grouped
in the usual way.
Regarding the use of flat tones he is reported to
have once said :
" House-painters have the right idea about paint-
ing, God bless them."
How far removed from Ruskin, who said :
" Hence, wherever in a painting we have unva-
ried color extended even over a small space, there
is falsehood. Nothing can be natural which is mo-
notonous ; nothing true which only tells one story."
To Ruskin nature was all in all ; to Whistler
color was of first consideration. The one looked at
color to find natural effects ; the other looked at
nature to find color-effects.
Whistler chose intuitively those scenes and those
hours of the day when he would be least hampered
by rigid requirements of line and form.
He frequently painted the sea under strong light ;
but under any light water presents itself in broken
lines and large masses.
He was a master of line in the high sense that
with a few lines he could render not only the char-
acter but the characteristics of whatever was before
him. He was a master of form, — even as Ruskin
uses the term, — since he could, when the conditions
required it, express the most subtle contours in
terms of light and shade and color ; but he cared
212
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
less for the bald realities of sunlight than for the
shadows of dusk and the mysteries of night.
He has himself said :
" The sun blares, the wind blows from the east, the sky is
bereft of cloud, and without all is of iron. The windows of
the Crystal Palace are seen from all points of London. The
holiday-maker rejoices in the glorious day, and the painter
turns aside to shut his eyes.
" How little this is understood, and how dutifully the
casual in nature is accepted as sublime, may be gathered
from the unlimited admiration daily produced by a very
foolish sunset.
" The dignity of the snow-capped mountain is lost in dis-
tinctness, but the joy of the tourist is to recognize the trav-
eller on the top. The desire to see for the sake of seeing
is, with the mass, alone the one to be gratified, hence the
delight in detail.
"And when the evening mist clothes the riverside with
poetry, as with a veil, and the poor buildings lose themselves
in the dim sky, and the tall chimneys become campanili,
and the warehouses are palaces in the night, and the whole
city hangs in the heavens, and fairy-land is before us, — then
the wayfarer hastens home ; the working-man and the cul-
tured one, the wise man and the one of pleasure cease to
understand, as they have ceased to see ; and Nature, who,
for once, has sung in tune, sings her exquisite song to the
artist alone, her son and her master, — her son in that he
loves her, her master in that he knows her." 1
And it was his habit to paint when the studio was
filled with gloom and lengthening shadows crept
across the floor ; when it was so dark the dull eye
1 Gentle Art, pp. 143, 144.
213
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
of sitter or chance visitor could scarce distinguish
the figure on the canvas.
This " painting in the dark," as some have called
it, was a singular trait. He would paint with in-
creasing force and effect as the room became darker
and darker, until it seemed as if the falling of night
was an inspiration.
Once a sitter asked him how it was possible to
paint when it was so dark.
" As the light fades and the shadows deepen all
petty and exacting details vanish, everything trivial
disappears, and I see things as they are in great
strong masses : the buttons are lost, but the gar-
ment remains ; the garment is lost, but the sitter
remains ; the sitter is lost, but the shadow remains ;
the shadow is lost, but the picture remains. And that
night cannot efface from the painter's imagination."
People never could understand his attitude towards
nature. When he spoke of the " unlimited admira-
tion daily produced by a very foolish sunset," and
how "the dignity of the snow-capped mountain is
lost in distinctness, but the joy of the tourist is to
recognize the traveller on the top," he at once puz-
zled and irritated the lay mind, for is not the sunset
beautiful ? and the , traveller on the highest peak
of greater interest than the mountain ?
When a lady one day rushed up to him and en-
thusiastically exclaimed :
"Oh, Mr. Whistler, I have just been up the river,
and it reminded me so much of your pictures."
214
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
And he replied :
"Indeed ! Then, Nature is looking up," — people
resented it as vanity.
But it was not vanity. It was simply his attitude
towards nature and art.
If some one had said to Mendelssohn, " I have
just been in the woods and heard sounds that were
just like some of your " Songs without Words,"
Mendelssohn would have been surprised, and might
well have replied, " Then, the birds are doing better."
Concerning nature, Whistler said :
"That nature is always right is an assertion artistically
as untrue as it is one whose truth is universally taken for
granted. Nature is very rarely right ; to such an extent,
even, that it might almost be said that nature is usually
wrong. That is to say, the condition of things that shall
bring about the perfection of harmony worthy a picture is
rare, and not common at all.
"This would seem, to even the most intelligent, a doctrine
almost blasphemous. So incorporated with our education
has the supposed aphorism become, that its belief is held
to be part of our moral being ; and the words themselves
have, in our ear, the ring of religion. Still, seldom does
nature succeed in producing a picture." ]
One should never confound art with nature ; they
are antithetical terms. There is no art in nature ;
there should be no nature in art. And what is art
is not nature, and what is nature is not art.
Nature is the raw material, art is the finished
product ; and art should no more resemble nature
1 Gentle Art, p. 143.
215
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
than a house resembles a cave. And to the extent
that art slavishly imitates nature is it of the cave-
dwelling variety.
There is no color that is not found in nature.
There is no combination of colors a hint of which
cannot be found in nature. But it is the business
of art to take the colors, accept the hints, and pro-
duce combinations and effects not found in nature.
It is not the business of the artist to paint any-
thing as it is, but everything as he sees it.
Yet the public demand that a tree shall be repro-
duced as they see it, — that the picture shall be a
substitute for the reality. Why not go to the win-
dow and look at the tree ? For, as a tree, with its
quivering leaves and the infinite play of light and
shadow, it is more beautiful than any realistic pho-
tograph, drawing, or painting possibly could be.
But to see the reflection of the tree in the depths
of a human soul one must turn to art, to poetry, to
music, or to painting. The reflection may not at all
resemble the reality any more than Keats's " Ode
to a Nightingale" resembles the bird or the song of
the bird ; but it will be far more interesting and far
more beautiful because a human expression.
The child's mud-house and the boy's snow-man
are of greater concern to humankind than all the
plains and mountains of the earth.
216
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
VIII
The Royal Society of British Artists — In Paris
once more — At Home and at Work.
In June, 1886, Whistler was elected president of
the Royal Society of British Artists.
Prior to that time he had exhibited in the rooms
of the society in Suffolk Street, and he was no
doubt elected to give life to a moribund association.
He succeeded beyond the wildest anticipations of
the most sanguine members.
He rearranged the exhibitions by excluding suffi-
cient of the unworthy to leave ample space on the
walls for the proper exhibition of such pictures as
were accepted.
When the Prince of Wales, now King Edward,
visited the galleries for the first time, Whistler, as
president, received him. And when the prince said
he had never before heard of the society and asked
its history, Whistler, with the grace of a courtier,
replied :
" It has none, your Highness. Its history dates
from to-day."
Two years of so revolutionary a president were
all the ancient association could stand. As has been
well said : x
1 London Times, July 18, 1903.
217
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
" That Suffolk-Street episode was, perhaps, the oddest of
an odd career. The most mediocre and middle-class of all
the artistic societies of London was in low water, and the
thought occurred to some revolutionary members to make
Whistler president. It was like electing a sparrow-hawk to
rule a community of bats. Some of the bats moved out,
some followers of the sparrow-hawk came in ; but the interest-
ing new community did not last long. The suburban ladies,
who had been the support of the Society of British Artists,
were shocked at the changes. They found no pleasure in
the awning stretched across the middle of the room, the bat-
tened walls, the spaced-out ' impressionist' pictures, and the
total absence of the anecdotes and bright colors which they
loved. A few hundred visitors of another sort came, and were
charmed, but the commercial test of success was not satis-
fied. Before long Whistler ceased to be president, and the
society, under a more congruous chief, ' relapsed to its
ancient mood.' "
When he failed of re-election many of his friends
resigned.
"It is all very simple," he said. "The 'Royal
Society of British Artists' has disintegrated, — the
'Artists' have come out, the 'British' remain."
When interviewed to obtain his explanation of
the "state of affairs :"
' ' The state of affairs ?' ' said Mr. Whistler, in his light and
airy way, raising his eyebrows and twinkling his eyes, as if
it were all the best possible fun in the world ; "why, my dear
sir, there's positively no state of affairs at all. Contrary to
public declaration, there's actually nothing chaotic in the
whole business. On the contrary, everything is in order, and
just as it should be, — the survival of the fittest as regards
the presidency, don't you see ; and, well — Suffolk Street is
itself again ! A new government has come in ; and, as I
218
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
told the members the other night, I congratulate the society
on the result of their vote : for no longer can it be said that
the right man is in the wrong place. No doubt their pristine
sense of undisturbed somnolence will again settle upon them
after the exasperated mental condition arising from the un-
natural strain recently put upon the old ship. Eh ? what ?
ha ! ha!"
He painted a signboard for the entrance to the
galleries, — a lion and a butterfly, — a " harmony in
gold and red," with which, he says, " I took as
much trouble as I did with the best picture I ever
painted."
But his successor in office clothed the golden lion
"with a coat of dirty black," and effaced the butter-
fly entirely ; whereupon he called the society to task
for destroying the work of a fellow-artist, and the
entire episode appears in the "Gentle Art" as only
he could tell it.
In 1887 he married the widow of E. W. Godwin,
the architect of the "White House," and not long
after they went to live in Paris, at 1 10 Rue du Bac.
The narrow passage-way that leads from the street
to where they lived is, like thousands of others in
Old Paris, just an archway between two shops, un-
promising and uninviting.
Passing through, one finds a small paved court
immediately in the rear, and on three sides of this
court the entrances and windows of the apartments
and houses opening therefrom.
The court itself is not without interest. On one
219
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
side there is an old bronze fountain, long since dry ;
about the walls a sculptured frieze, much the worse
for wear ; everything of by-gone days, — the very
architecture, in all its details, of another generation.
Whistler's entrance was on the ground floor, just
across the little court. On a memorable day the
bell was answered by a solemn-faced English ser-
vant, — possibly more than ordinarily solemn-faced,
because that particular morning he was in great dis-
favor, and was subsequently discharged for a cumu-
lation of shortcomings which would have exhausted
the patience of an ordinary man thrice over. But
Whistler — all impressions to the contrary, notwith-
standing — was a man of infinite patience with sitter
and servant, — the work of the latter being consider-
ably lighter than that of the former. Under only
the greatest provocation would he discharge either.
Passing through the door, one went down several
steps into the small hall, and through that into the
reception-room.
This room was a revelation of the personality of
the artist, — simple, dignified, harmonious ; it was
restful and charming to the last degree. The details
were so unobtrusive that it is difficult to recall par-
ticular features. The floor was covered with a
coarse, dark-blue matting ; the panelled walls were
in pure white and blue, while the ceiling was in a
light shade of blue. The room stood firmly on its
feet, unlike so many in even the best of houses,
which have floors so light and walls so dark that
everything is topsy-turvy.
220
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
Color seeks and finds its level ; light floors, with
darker walls and ceilings, reverse the natural order
of things, and compel people to live on their heads.
The few pieces of furniture were of an old pat-
tern, graceful almost to fragility, and covered with
some light stuff which harmonized with the tone of
the walls.
There were but two pictures in the room, one at
each end, both sketches by Whistler, "harmonies"
or "arrangements" in color rather than composi-
tions. The "key" being blue, the pictures blended
with the walls, as all pictures should, as if part of the
original scheme of decoration.
When a visitor, who was fascinated by the color
of these two studies, asked the painter if he would
part with them, he said :
" God bless me, no ! I am going to do some-
thing big some day from those. Pretty, eh?"
His studio was filled with just such " notes" and
"jottings" of schemes in color and composition,
and from each it was his intention to work out
something more important and complete ; but such
was the fertility of his imagination that no man
could hope to carry even a fraction to finished con-
clusions.
Near the fireplace, at one end of the room, was a
little old-fashioned table covered with writing-ma-
terials, — paper of the smallest size, a dainty ink-
stand, and several quill pens. This was the table
of controversy, the battlefield of disputation, the
veritable mount of irony, while the ink-well was
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
the fountain of exquisite sarcasm, and the quill
pens the scalpels which laid bare the vital recesses
of unlucky opponents.
It was the habit of the painter, in his idle mo-
ments, to sit at this little table, with a small cup of
coffee and a cigarette, and write those barbed and
pointed notes which, like so many banderillas, irri-
tated to frenzy the bulls they were aimed at.
The far side of the room opened into one of
those quaint old gardens so often found tucked away
in the midst of crumbling buildings on the ancient
thoroughfares. Its narrow confines were enlarged to
the eye by winding, gravelled walks and vistas of
flowers and bushes ; the rickety seats, half hidden
by the foliage, invited the loiterer to repose, and the
high wall beyond suggested the gloomy confines of
some convent or deserted monastery.
"A picturesque spot. Once at dusk there came
the tinkle of a far-off bell, as if for vesper prayers ;
the years rolled back, and visions of other days
flitted along the garden paths ; stately dames in rich
brocades, with powder, patch, and high coiffure, and
gallant courtiers with graved and jewelled blades,
whose whispered vows were no more stable than the
sound of rustling leaves."
Here of a Sunday afternoon Mrs. Whistler fre-
quently served tea, and in this garden he made some
of his best lithographs.
At home Whistler was the most delightful of —
guests. The cares of hospitality sat lightly upon
him.
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
To the caller who had come at the appointed
hour, and had waited for thirty or forty minutes,
he would apologize so delightfully for the " unpar-
donable delay," that a prince could take no offence,
much less an ordinary visitor, who could profitably
spend the time in studying the harmonious sur-
roundings.
It is difficult to describe the charm of his man-
ner, so different from the notion of it that prevails
generally.
He was far more easy of approach than most
celebrities ; and once within the charmed circle, he
was the most agreeable and companionable of
living men.
He would make the diffident feel instantly at
ease, and he would exert himself to interest even
the stupid visitor, but he would not encourage him
to come again.
His own talk was so bright that it was unneces-
sary for any guest to say much, — a capacity for lis-
tening appreciatively being the best qualification.
Still, he did not monopolize the conversation. He
himself was one of the keenest listeners that ever
sat at a dinner-table ; nothing escaped him. And
if by chance some one said a good thing, he was the
first to applaud it.
In company it was impossible to draw him into
serious discussion. If the attempt were made, it
usually led to a monologue on his part on some
branch of the topic under discussion, — a monologue
so extravagant, so funny, so irresistible in its humor
223
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
and denunciation that the entire company would
turn and listen with delight
No one who has ever heard his comparison of the
Englishman who carries his tub and sponge on the
top of the coach to parade his cleanliness with the
French who had vast public baths before England
was discovered can ever forget the inimitable wit
and humor and — underlying truth of it all. Again,
his description of the Germans, — a people that call
a glove a hand-shoe. Well, it is idle to even call to
mind these things ; they will never be heard again,
and no report could do them justice.
A lady, after visiting him, said, " He is like no
other human being ; a creature of moods and epi-
grams, but perfectly delightful. I feel as if I'd been
conversing with a flash of lightning in a brown
velvet coat."
No man could draw him out of malice afore-
thought. It was fatal to say :
"Mr. Whistler, do tell that story of the "
etc.
Of that sort he was no story-teller at all, and if
persistently urged, would close up like a clam ; but,
if left to himself, he would take part in any conversa-
tion that might be started, and would soon take the
lead, not obviously or offensively, but naturally, and
say things that would make the professed wit dumb
with envy. He would say things he had said, or
even printed, before, if the subject warranted it.
He might even go a bit out of his way to drag in a
good thing which he thought would fit ; but for the
224
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
most part his talk was the spontaneous utterance of
the occasion.
He was known to every "chef" and "maitre
d' hotel" in London and Paris, — for, while he ate and
drank most sparingly, he was exceedingly fastidious.
He did not care greatly for the large caravansa-
ries like the " Ritz," where people go to perform in
public astounding gastronomic feats ; but he knew
every place in Paris where a really good dish was to
be had at a moderate price, and every such place
gave him the best it had.
Nearly every sketch, drawing, or portrait of Whist-
ler gives some phase of his many-sided personality,
but not one — not even those by himself — gives any-
thing like an adequate conception.
He was a man most difficult to place on canvas.
He could not be grasped and held long enough.
He himself tried it, but with only moderate success.
Others have tried it and failed completely, — that is,
failed to portray him at his best ; for that matter,
no one who has ever drawn or painted him did so
when he was at his best, for those moments came
only in the seclusion of his own studio, when, alone
with model or sitter, he worked absolutely oblivious
to everything but his art. No man is at his best
when posing for photograph, sketch, or portrait, and
Whistler was farther from being an exception to
this rule than most others. He knew too well what
a portrait should be to feel the indifference which is
essential to a perfectly natural pose. Consequently,
15 225
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
while few men were better known by sight in Paris
and London, scarce any one knew him as he was, —
the most profoundly serious, conscientious, and con-
sistent artist of his day and generation.
As has been stated, he was always exceedingly
particular about his dress, — as finicky as a woman.
In his early London days he carried a long, slender
wand, like a mahl-stick, for a cane, and was conspic-
uous wherever he went, not only on account of his
diminutive size, but also by his stick and dress.
An attendant at an exhibition once wished to re-
lieve him of his cane, but he exclaimed :
" Oh, no, my man ! I keep this for the critics."
The following, by a London correspondent, is a
very good description, though of late years he had
abandoned the cane and his hair was somewhat
grayer :
"They say Whistler is fifty-six. But years have nothing
to do with him. He is as young in spirit, as lithe in body,
as dapper in ' get-up' as he was twenty years ago.
"Is there another man in London with such vitality as
Whistler has, — I care not what his age, — another so dainty,
another so sprightly in wit ? Do you see that dapper gentle-
man coming along Cheyne Walk, silk hat with very tall crown
and very straight brim ; habit apparently broadcloth (frock
coat), fitting to perfection a supple figure ; feet small as a
girl's, — an American girl's ; hands delicately gloved in yellow;
in the right hand a lithe, slim wand, twice as long as a walk-
ing stick ; glass in eye ; black moustache and slight * imperial ;'
black hair with wavy threads of gray here and there ? The
dainty gentleman lifts his hat, and you see above his fore-
head the slender, white lock — the white plume as famous as
226
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
that of Navarre. This is our friend Whistler, the inimitable,
truly called ' the master. ' You may meet him in the early
morning, or at a private view in the afternoon, at an evening
party, two hours before midnight or two hours after it ; and
you will find him as fresh in spirit, as dainty, as lively, as
witty at one time as at another."
Some one once gave him an American umbrella, —
one of those that when rolled tightly are as small as
walking-sticks. He was delighted with it, and used
it as a cane. One day, coming out of the studio
with a friend, and while hurrying to the cab-stand a
few blocks away, it began to drizzle, and his friend,
who had no umbrella, said :
" Hurry and put up your umbrella or we'll get
our hats wet."
He fumbled a second at the umbrella, then hur-
ried on.
"But I would get my umbrella wet."
It was commonly said Whistler was unapproach-
able. In his studio, when at work, yes ; in his
home, no.
A note of introduction from any approved corre-
spondent would almost invariably bring a favorable
response. But not every correspondent was ap-
proved ; or if so at one time, did not necessarily
remain so indefinitely, and a note from the wrong —
perhaps wronged — source was no commendation at
all. On the whole, a frank application from a stranger
for permission to call was quite as likely as not to
prove successful, such a note in itself being a tribute.
227
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
But at the studio it was very different He had
no reception-days or hours, as many painters have.
He had no use for the social rabble in his work-
shop.
One warm afternoon, when hard at work, the bell
rang. Brush in hand, he went to the outer door at
the head of the six flights of steep, slippery oak stairs,
and found there Mr. C , whom he knew, — a man
who had little to do but bother others, — and Lady
D , a distinguished and clever woman, both out
of breath from their long climb.
"Ah! my dear Mr. Whistler," drawled C ,
"I have taken the liberty of bringing Lady D
to see you. I knew you would be delighted."
"Delighted! I'm sure; quite beyond expression;
but," — mysteriously, and holding the door so as to
bar their entrance, — " my dear Lady D , I would
never forgive our friend for bringing you up six
flights of stairs on so hot a day to visit a studio at
one of those — eh — pagan moments when" — and he
glanced furtively behind him and still further closed
the door — " it is absolutely impossible for a lady to
be received. Upon my soul, I should never forgive
him."
And the lady looked daggers at her confused cav-
alier, as Whistler bowed them down the six flights
of oaken stairs and returned to resume work on the
portrait of a very sedate old gentleman, who had
taken advantage of the interruption to break for a
moment the rigor of his pose.
In those days and for many years the Paris studio
228
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
was at No. 86 Notre Dame des Champs. Whistler
said one day, " Only the French have any taste in
the naming of streets."
The six steep flights of polished oak stairs no
doubt shortened his life by many years. As long
ago as 1894 he was accustomed to take a long rest
on a settee at the head of the third flight, and again
on reaching the top. Later he would have his
luncheon served in the studio to avoid the fatigue
of going down and coming back. He was by no
means an old man, and looked the picture of health,
cheeks ruddy, eye bright ; but he would get out of
breath, and his heart gave him trouble, — startled him
at times with its eccentricities and warnings.
A blunt friend, frightened at seeing him one day
almost collapse on reaching the studio, said :
" I tell you, Whistler, those stairs will be the
death of you ; and I'll be hanged if I am coming
here any more with you, for you'll die on my hands,
and that would get me into a nice mess. Why
don't you have a studio on the ground floor?"
"When I die— I will."
But while casual callers met with scant courtesy
at the studio, he was, as has already been noted,
exceptionally cordial to all who were sincerely in-
terested in his work, and would spend hours and
hours of days that were precious in showing pictures
to people who really could not understand them, —
for that matter, who did understand them? — but
who were honest in their expressions of approval,
229
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
and this, too, with no thought of selling anything he
had ; in fact, nothing chilled the enthusiasm of the
moment so much as the suggestion of a purchase ;
he became immediately a different being, and one by
one his treasures would be turned to the wall.
The studio was a large barn-like room at the very
top of the high building. There was a small entry-
way, which had a glass door opening out upon a
balcony, high up over the street, and another door
which opened into the studio proper.
A huge skylight lighted this great attic, but only
in part, for the room was too big to be well lighted
from any one opening.
The old oak floor was quite dark, and in places
where he worked it was polished by use, for when
entirely absorbed he had the habit of moving back
and forth so quickly as to slide a pace or two.
The tone of the studio was brown, not a deep or
muddy brown, but a brown that seemed tinged with
gray.
The base-board that stretched a narrow line about
the big room was a deeper shade than the wall, and
so nice were the gradations of tone, that floor, base-
board, wall, and raftered ceiling blended together as
one harmonious whole, all of which was the work
of Whistler.
The furniture amounted to nothing : a table near
the far side, where he lunched, an old sofa against
the wall under the skylight, two or three old French
chairs, his easel and palette. There was a high
230
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
stove near the door, — one of those French complica-
tions intended for the generation of a maximum of
heat with a minimum consumption of precious coal.
Like most labor-saving devices, it required some
skill for its management, and Whistler was not a
mechanic.
One cold day it was only too apparent the stove
needed encouragement, and the sitter suggested
that the damper be opened, — in fact, started to
open it himself, when Whistler, greatly alarmed,
exclaimed :
" God bless me ! but you must not touch that ; the
last time I meddled with it, the fire went out. There
is only one man in Paris who understands that stove."
"Well, where is he?"
" Dear me, I discharged him to-day. How un-
lucky."
"Then, we must seize the stove by the horns and
take our chances on the consequences." And throw-
ing the damper wide open, there was soon a blazing
fire.
For work outside, Whistler used a very small
palette of the usual form ; in his studio he carried
no palette whatsoever, but used in lieu thereof a
rectangular table that resembled a writing-desk.
The top sloped slightly ; at the left were tubes of
colors, at the right one or two bowls containing oil
and turpentine, with which the colors when mixed
were reduced so thin that they would run on the
sloping top of the table.
231
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
He relied upon innumerable coats of thin color
to secure the desired effect rather than upon one or
two coats of greater consistency. This made the
work long and tedious as compared with the modern
mode of taking the pigments as they squirm from
the tubes and pasting them while yet alive on the
canvas ; but it has undoubtedly given his pictures a
permanency and durability far beyond that of others.
He seldom began to arrange his palette until the
model or sitter was in pose ; and ten or fifteen min-
utes were not infrequently spent in getting palette
and brushes to suit him. To a model paid by the
hour this delay was of no concern, but to the un-
practised sitter, whose limit of endurance and pa-
tience did not exceed an hour, the time spent in
setting the palette seemed unduly long and alto-
gether wasted. But all that was a part of the re-
finement of Whistler's art.
So susceptible was his color-sense that he could
not mix colors to suit him unless canvas and sitter
were before him precisely as they would be when he
began to paint. The arrangement of the colors on
the palette was but preliminary to placing those
same colors on the canvas, therefore the sitter was
as essential to the one process as the other.
Once inside his studio, Whistler seemed to lose
all the eccentricities of manner by which he was
known to the world. He doffed his coat, substi-
tuted for his monocle a pair of servicable spectacles,
and was ready for work.
232
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
If it were a full-length portrait, he placed the can-
vas near his palette and his sitter in pose about
four feet to the other side of the easel. For obser-
vation he stood about twelve feet back towards
the doorway, — very close, in fact, to the refractory
stove. The light fell slanting on the right of the
portrait and sitter, over the painter's left shoulder,
and this light he would modify each day accord-
ing to the amount of sunshine and the effect he
desired.
He then selected two or three small brushes with
handles about three feet in length, stood back about
twelve feet, took a good look at both sitter and
canvas, then stepping quickly forward, and, standing
as far from the canvas as the long handles and his
arms permitted, he began to rapidly sketch in the
figure with long, firm strokes of the brush. The
advantage of long handles was obvious, — they en-
abled him to stand back quite a distance and sketch
directly from his sitter. Except for this first sketch,
he used ordinary brushes with ordinary handles.
There was nothing eccentric or unusual in his
methods or in what he worked with. Probably no
painter in all Paris used simpler means to arrive at
great results. It is quite likely that no other painter
of to-day — judging entirely from appearances of
modern canvases — could achieve any satisfactory
results with materials so elemental.
To make the sketch required possibly thirty min-
utes. To the casual observer there was often more
of a likeness in the first sketch than at any time
233
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
after, — which simply goes to show the power of line
devoid of color and also the easy task of the
caricaturist.
The sketch finished, the long-handled brushes
were discarded and work began in earnest With
one or more, sometimes a handful of brushes, — for
they would accumulate without his realizing it, — he
would again stand back and carefully scrutinize sitter
and canvas until it seemed as if — and no doubt it
was so — he transferred a visual impression of the
subject to the canvas and fixed it there ready to be
made permanent with line and color ; then quickly,
often with a run and a slide, he rushed up to the
canvas and, without glancing at his sitter, vigorously
painted so long as his visual image lasted, then going
back the full distance he took another look, and so
on day after day to the end.
In life-size work he seldom stood close to the
canvas and painted direct from his sitter.
He has laid down the proposition :
" The one aim of the unsuspecting painter is to make his
man ' stand out' from the frame, never doubting that, on the
contrary, he should really, and in truth absolutely does,
stand within the frame, and at a depth behind it equal to the
distance at which the painter sees his model. The frame is,
indeed, the window through which the painter looks at his
model, and nothing could be more offensively inartistic than
this brutal attempt to thrust the model on the hitherside of
this window." 1
1 Gentle Art, pp. 177, 178.
234
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
The number of sittings required varied greatly,
and did not depend in any degree upon the size of
the canvas. Sometimes he would paint a life-size
figure with great rapidity ; again he would spend
weeks and months on a very small picture. All de-
pending upon conditions over which he had no
control.
He has devoted as many as ninety sittings to a
portrait, only to pronounce it unfinished and unsatis-
factory.
No work counted or was permitted to remain save
that painted in what he called his " grand manner,"
which meant the work of those days and hours when
everything — sitter, light, weather, spirits, mood, en-
thusiasm — was just right, — a combination that might
come several days in succession or but once in a
fortnight.
He once said, " The portrait of my mother was
painted in a few hours," meaning that the work of
the last few hours was the work that really counted.
It was interesting to watch a picture grow under
the hands of Whistler. With most painters some-
thing is finished from day to day, and in the course
of ten or twelve sittings the portrait is complete.
Not so with him. Nothing, not a detail, not even an
infinitesimal section of the background was finished
until the last.
He worked with great rapidity and long hours,
but he used his colors thin and covered the canvas
with innumerable coats of paint. The colors in-
creased in depth and intensity as the work pro-
235
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
gressed. At first the entire figure was painted in
grayish-brown tones, with very little of flesh color,
the whole blending perfectly with the grayish-brown
of the prepared canvas ; then the entire background
would be intensified a little ; then the figure made
a little stronger ; then the background, and so on
from day to day and week to week, and often from
month to month, to the exhaustion of the sitter, but
the perfection of the work, if the sitter remained
patient and continued in favor.
At no time did he permit the figure to get away
from or out of the background ; at no time did he
permit the background to oppress the figure, but
the development of both was even and harmonious,
with neither discord nor undue contrast.
And so the portrait would really grow, really
develop as an entirety, very much as a negative
under the action of the chemicals comes out gradu-
ally — lights, shadows, and all from the first faint
indications to their full values.
It was as if the portrait were hidden within the
canvas and the master by passing his wands day
after day over the surface evoked the image.
Most painters can take a canvas and begin at
once with the colors of the finished picture, making
each stroke count from the very first, often, if the
canvas has been prepared, doing little or nothing to
the background. Whistler himself would some-
times let the prepared canvas show, all the resources
of his art he understood, but if he did, the picture
was simply a sketch.
236
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
In a very profound sense Whistler's work from
the very beginning was always finished, — finished
in the sense that any growing thing is perfect from
day to day. The plant may be but a tender shoot
just appearing above the ground, or it may be in
full leaf, or in gorgeous blossom, but it is finished,
it is perfect by day and night In that sense were
Whistler's paintings finished. If they were sketches,
then the slight amount of color used was precisely
the amount the sketch required. At no time was
the sense of proportion outraged by carrying line
or color or likeness beyond the symmetrical develop-
ment of the three.
One must not be understood as saying that all
his pictures are of equal merit, — perfection does not
necessarily mean that ; nor that he did not do many
things he considered failures.
Few painters ever destroyed more work, no
painter was ever more critical of his own work.
But, in spite of all he could do, things would get out
into the world that he wished destroyed. This was
due in part to the facility with which he made
sketches and the enthusiasm with which he would
begin new things, many of which never got on.
Now and then some of these unfinished things —
unfinished from the first stroke, because never quite
satisfactory to him — would escape his studio.
Artists express very positive opinions regarding
the merits of his pictures, placing some with the
best the world has done, others as quite unworthy
237
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
the master. As no two painters agree which are
the best and which are the least worthy, the layman
is helpless. In truth, only Whistler himself could
have pointed out all the qualities and defects, and
this he never did. If pressed for an opinion or a
preference, he would evade the question, or by deftly
speaking of this or that quality of the works under
discussion would leave his hearers with the im-
pression they knew all about the matter, when in
reality they were no wiser than before. He simply
did not care to discuss his work intimately with
the lay or the professional mind. What he saw
was beyond their comprehension, or if not beyond
their comprehension, then they saw it without fur-
ther words from him, for did not the picture speak
plainly for itself?
Contrary to general impression, he was patience
itself in his studio. A sitter who was with him
every day for nearly six weeks never heard him
utter an impatient word ; on the contrary, he was
all kindness. He would permit his sitter to bring
friends to the studio, and he would listen to all the
foolish suggestions that could occur to a tired and
impatient man.
Sometimes he would rebuke a too-insistent sitter,
as the following anecdotes show, if true :
It is said that one man annoyed him by saying at
the end of each sitting :
"How about that ear, Mr. Whistler? Don't
forget to finish that !"
238
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
At the last sitting, everything being done except
this ear, Whistler said :
"Well, I think I am through. Now I'll sign it."
Which he did in a very solemn, important manner,
as was his way.
"But my ear, Mr. Whistler! You aren't going
to leave it that way?"
" Oh, you can put it in after you get home."
He was once painting the portrait of a distin-
guished novelist, who, though extremely clever, was
not blessed with the fatal gift of .beauty. When
the portrait was finished, the sitter did not seem
satisfied with it.
"Don't you like it?" inquired Whistler.
"No ; can't say I do. But," in self justification,
"you must admit that it is a bad work of art."
"Yes," Whistler replied ; "but I think you must
admit that you are a bad work of nature."
The truth is, he would listen to every suggestion
made by the sitter, model, or even casual visitor, if
one were admitted.
A sitter once said to him :
" Mr. Whistler, isn't there something wrong about
the right eye?"
Instantly alert, he said :
"What's that you say? Um — um — right eye ' '
And he carefully examined the canvas. "We'll have
a look at that. Suppose you stand for just a moment
— just a moment." And he paid as much heed as
if the criticism had come from competent sources.
Mrs. Whistler would now and then come to the
239
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
studio, and he would eagerly ask her opinion of the
progress made ; and her suggestions were always
followed. For her ability as an artist — for her own
pleasure, rather than for profit — and as a critic of
his work he had the highest opinion. Her sug-
gestions were ever to the point, and under her in-
fluence a work always made rapid headway. It was
an irreparable loss when she died in 1897, an d he
was never again quite so light-hearted. For a long
time he kept the apartments at 1 10 Rue du Bac, but
did not live there.
His will expressed his devotion to her memory
and belief in her art, —
' ' I bequeath my wife' s entire collection of garnets rare
and beautiful, together with sprays, pendants, etc., of the
same style of work or setting in white stones, brilliants, or
old paste, our entire collection of beautiful old silver and
plate, and the complete collection of old china, to the Louvre.
This bequest is on condition that the three collections be
gathered together in one and displayed as the ' Beatrix
Whistler Collection.' Also that in it or appropriately in the
same room shall be hung proofs of my wife's exquisite etch-
ings, of which I leave a list attached to my will signed
by me."
By a codicil dated May 7, 1 903, he revoked the
bequest to the Louvre, but he expressed a desire
that, in the event of his residuary legatee retain-
ing the collection of garnets during her life, she
would bequeath them to the Louvre upon her death.
240
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
He was unsparing of his sitters only in this one
respect, — he would become so absorbed in his work
as to completely forget them, and they would col-
lapse with fatigue. Sometimes he would notice by
their pallor the faintness which was overcoming
them, and instantly, all solicitude, he would have
them rest, or go out on the balcony for fresh air ;
but he himself never sat down. While they were
resting he would walk back and forth, looking at the
canvas, but rarely touching it, and talking to him-
self, — now and then, but not often, taking the sitter
into his confidence. The moment the sitter was
rested he would begin working again like one pos-
sessed.
By close observation it could be seen that the
best work was usually done during the first long
pose, or in the last hour of the afternoon, when the
shadows were deepening ; and the wise sitter would
humor this trait and pose his longest and best in
those two hours.
To the unaccustomed a half-hour standing — with-
out moving so much as to disturb a line of the gar-
ments — is a long pose. But with practice — and with
Whistler one had practice — an hour and a half with-
out moving a muscle is not impossible.
Every portrait Whistler ever began he expected
to make his masterpiece. That is the way he started
in with any work. It was to be the best thing he
ever did ; and so long as the enthusiasm lasted he
would walk up and down the studio talking half to
himself half to his sitter :
16 241
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
" We will just go right on as we have begun, and
it will be fine, — perhaps the finest thing I have ever
done."
"Not as good as the portrait of your mother?"
— the inevitable question.
" Perhaps ; who knows ? Possibly finer in a way ;
for this, you know, is different. We'll make a big
thing of it." And so on for days and weeks, until
something would occur, — possibly weariness on the
part of the sitter ; possibly failure to keep appoint-
ments on days when the painter felt like doing his
best ; possibly too great anxiety to see the picture
finished, — and the painter's enthusiasm would sub-
side, and the portrait would turn out not so great
after all.
After the first few days he would place the canvas
in its frame, and thereafter paint with it so. And
his frames were designed by himself. All who have
seen his pictures know them, — just simple, dignified
lines, with no contortions of wood and gilt.
When a sitter was of congenial spirit and com-
placent mood they would lunch in the studio, and
he would paint all day, from eleven in the morning
until — well, until it was so dark that all was dim
and shadowy and ghostly ; and then together both
would take their leave, always turning at the door
for a last look at the canvas looming mysterious in
the darkness ; then grope their way down the wind-
ing oaken stairs, later to dine together at some un-
frequented place where the proprietor watched the
242
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
fire himself and had stored away in musty depths a
few — just a few — relics of memorable vintages.
" O my friends, when I am sped, appoint a meeting ; and
when ye have met together, be ye glad thereof ; and when
the cup-bearer holds in her hand a flagon of old wine, then
think of old Khayyam and drink to his memory."
In a glass of ruby Margaux of the vintage of
'58, the last of its dusty bin, I drink to the memory
of those glorious days when the vacant canvas as-
sumed the hues of life and grew beneath the touch ;
and those fragrant nights when, with stately cere-
mony, the cob-webbed bottle came forth from its
bed of long repose to subdue fatigue, banish all
care, and leave but the thought of the beautiful. —
Behold, far soul, the empty glass !
243
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
IX
Portrait -Painting — How he Differed from his
Great Predecessors — The "Likeness" — Compo-
sition of Color — No Commercial Side — Baronet
vs. Butterfly.
Whistler was not a "portrait-painter," as the
phrase goes nowadays ; but he was, in certain re-
spects, the greatest painter of portraits the world
has known.
As a "portrait-painter" he fell far short of Rem-
brandt, Velasquez, and a host of lesser men ; but
as a painter of portraits he rose superior to them
all in certain refinements of the art.
There is a vast difference between the " portrait-
painter" to whom the sitter is of first importance
and the painter to whom his art is of first impor-
tance. The difference lies in the attitude of the
artist towards his canvas, towards the work he is
about to undertake. Is the inspiration wholly his
own, or is he influenced by considerations quite
foreign to the production of a pure work of art?
The attitude of the "portrait-painter" may be
likened unto that of the "poet laureate," whose
verse is at the command of conditions he does not
244
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
control ; who may, by accident, write a good thing, —
but the rule is otherwise, with even the best.
To rightly place a human being on canvas, or in
stone, or in marble, or in poetry, is the noblest
achievement of art On the technical side it ex-
hausts the resources of the art ; on the spiritual side
it exhausts the genius of the artist. But " portrait-
painting" as a profession, as an industrial and a
commercial proposition, is a degradation of art. It
is in strict accord with the spirit of the age ; it is a
natural and an inevitable evolution. But it is, never-
theless, a degradation, — for wherein does the shop-
like atelier of the professional "portrait-painter"
differ from the emporium and the bazaar of com-
merce ? And wherein do the methods of the shrewd
and successful painter differ from those of the suc-
cessful merchant ? Are not the doors of the studio
open to every comer with a purse ? Are not the
prices fixed at so much per square yard of canvas ?
Is not the patronage of celebrities sought, regardless
of artistic possibilities, for the prestige it gives?
Are not the A. R. A. and the R. A., and all the
degrees and decorations, sought, like the " By spe-
cial appointment to H. M. — " of the tradesman, for
the money there is in them?
But what need to enumerate the motives that
move the professional "portrait-painter," — they are
written on his every canvas.
Sculpture still clings to its ideals, and the " bust-
maker" is a term of reproach. No sculptor with
245
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
any ambition whatsoever, with any love for his art,
would willingly look forward to a career of portrait
bust-making. Dire necessity may compel him, and
year after year he may make the marble and bronze
effigies of local celebrities ; but the yoke galls, the
task wearies, and he looks forward to the time when,
emancipated from his thraldom, he may do some-
thing of his own.
Not so the " portrait-painter." He glories in his
degradation ; paints a score of huge, staring can-
vases, blatant likenesses of blatant people, and, be-
fore the paint is dry, parades them in exhibition as his
latest galaxy of masterpieces, — not that his art may
be magnified, but that his trade may be advertised.
The sculptor is only too glad if his bronze effi-
gies are hidden in leafy thickets, in parks, and
out-of-the-way places. He has not learned the com-
mercial value of exhibitions. He does not every
few months place on view a lot of marbles and
bronzes, the work of as many weeks. He has not
caught from the shop-keeper the trick of display-
ing his wares in a window. But the " portrait-
painter" !
"Portrait-painting" pays, — that is the worst of it
all. It is the one branch of the art of painting that
can be followed as methodically as the making of
clothes. It is, for that matter, closely allied to and
quite dependent upon the tailor and the dressmaker.
Worth made more portraits than any painter of the
day in Paris.
246
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
The "portrait-painter" must dress his manikin in
clothes that will " paint," for the manikin is worse
than nothing for the picture. There must be a
gown of brilliant stuffs, and either a hat or the
hair-dresser, — who also has made and unmade
portraits, — or there must be a uniform, hunting-
breeches, judge's gown and wig, accordingly as the
manikin is woman or man ; and it is the theatrical
trappings that are painted, and, incidentally thereto,
— manikin.
Reynolds painted something like two thousand
canvases. In 1758 one hundred and fifty persons
sat to him, — an average of three portraits a week.
He was as methodical as an automatic machine.
Rose early, breakfasted at nine, was in the studio at
ten, worked by himself until eleven, when his first
sitter of the day would appear, to be succeeded by
another precisely one hour later, and so on, a sitter
an hour, until four o'clock, when the popular painter
made himself ready for a plunge in the social swirl.
Portraits produced under such conditions cannot
be made more than technically brilliant, — superficial
likenesses of the great majority of the sitters, — and
are unworthy the painter's art.
After a brief study of their careers, and without
seeing a portrait by either, one would be warranted
in looking for a masterpiece among Gainsborough's
two hundred and twenty portraits rather than among
the two thousand canvases of Reynolds.
Great facility of execution is not necessarily a
247
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
condemnatory feature of a man's art, but it is a
dangerous feature, and with most men it is a fatal
feature.
The hand of the master must be entirely subser-
vient to the brain. No obstacle should intervene
between the inspiration and its complete expression,
but the hand must not force the imagination ; and
it is true that command of technic — mere digital
dexterity — does lead the performer, whether painter
or musician, to speak when he has nothing to say.
Happily for the reputation of Reynolds, he painted
now and then a portrait in which he took more
interest, and these have some — possibly not many
— of the qualities that live. For the most part his
reputation rests on mere volume of brilliant and
high-grade work, — very much as one factory has a
greater reputation than another. And he did more
than any man who ever lived to reduce " portrait-
painting" to a trade, a mechanical pursuit.
In the modern sense of the phrase, he was one
of the greatest of " portrait-painters ;" certainly the
most "successful" — again in the modern sense —
the world has known, of talent supreme, in genius
wanting.
But there are portraits and portraits, — to illus-
trate :
There are portraits.
There are portraits that are also pictures.
There are pictures that are also portraits.
There are pictures.
248
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
The first-named are mere likenesses, — photo-
graphs on canvas. This sort is very common and
very popular ; they are made with great facility
by the professional " portrait- painters" and they are
greatly applauded wherever seen. They have their
fixed prices, — so much for half, three-quarters, or
full-length, — and they are quite a matter of com-
merce, with a maximum of dexterity and a minimum
of art. There are those who can and do paint great
portraits, who turn out endless numbers of these
mechanically-made things to the detriment of their
art. Of the best of this sort were the most of
Reynolds's portraits, — superficially brilliant and at-
tractive likenesses that ought not to be seen outside
the family circle for which they were intended. Of
this same sort are most of those startling people who
issue from the studios of the popular " portrait-
painters" of to-day, to thrust the nonentity of their
individualities upon us. The identity of the " Blue-
Boy," by Gainesborough, is quite immaterial ; the
identity of the "Shrimp-Girl," by Hogarth, is like-
wise immaterial ; the identity of the " Child with a
Sword," by Manet, is of no importance, — for these
are pictures, though at the same time portraits.
But the identity of the " portraits" by the popu-
lar "portrait-painter" is, in ninety-nine instances
out of a hundred, a matter of great importance, the
value of the canvas being enhanced by the celebrity
or notoriety of the sitter.
The mere portrait is better than no portrait at
all, but it should be a fixture in its own household, a
249
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
family heirloom, and strictly entailed ; descendants
failing, then to the midden.
Between the mere portrait and the portrait that
possesses some of the universal qualities of a work
of art the interval is wide, and almost one of kind
rather than degree, though no line of strict demar-
cation can be drawn ; while, as between the paint-
ing that is primarily a portrait, with incidental uni-
versal qualities, and a painting that is primarily a
work of art, and incidentally a portrait, the difference
is entirely a matter of degree.
In, for instance, the " Blue-Boy" the portrait ele-
ment predominates; in the " Shrimp-Girl" the uni-
versal element predominates. In the former, the
portrait was uppermost in the painter's mind ; in
the other, the picture was the only consideration.
And yet Hogarth's is undoubtedly the more perfect
portrait, though slight and sketchy as compared with
the composition and finish of the Gainsborough.
In fact, the "Shrimp-Girl," as an abstract work
of art, is a degree higher than the picture-portrait.
It is a picture, — a work of art in the doing of which
no considerations other than the artistic intention
moved the painter.
A mere portrait, in the dash and brilliancy of its
execution or the decorative quality of its color, may
be better than a picture of indifferent execution or
poor color ; the one may be worth keeping in a
limited circle, or even of some use decoratively in a
more general way, while the other is not worth pre-
serving at all. But there is hope for the man who
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OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
attempts to paint a picture, to produce a work of
art, though he fails miserably ; whereas there is no
hope for the brilliant technician whose sole ambition
is to paint and sell his canvas photographs as rap-
idly as possible.
Manet's " Child with a Sword" is a superb por-
trait of a child, — a model, to be sure, but none the
less a little human being, with as many attributes of
life and humanity as the child whose parents pay
the price of a likeness. Manet's chief merit lies in
the fact that all his life long he tried to paint pictures,
sometimes successfully, sometimes unsuccessfully ;
never with any profound insight into human nature
or life, but always straightforwardly and sincerely,
and with a strong, firm hand. He painted many
portraits of his sister and his friends, but invariably
with the intention to do something of more universal
validity than a likeness.
The casual visitor to the Louvre may examine at
his leisure the little " Infanta" and the " Mona Lisa,"
both great pictures, both great portraits, but of the
two the portrait element is rather more pronounced
in the Velasquez than in the Leonardo.
The little " Infanta" is there for all time on the
canvas, precisely as she was in the painter's studio,
a wonderful portrait of a child, a wonderful picture
of a bit of humanity, but less of a type than an in-
dividual.
As for the "Mona Lisa," who can doubt that in
the long years the painter worked on this portrait
all superficial resemblances and characteristics dis-
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RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
appeared until the constant, the elemental, the soul
alone remained ? It possesses many of the qualities
of the idealized madonnas of Italian religious art.
It began with the painter's admiration of a beautiful
woman, an individual of that day and generation ; it
ended with an ideal which will last so long as the
slowly-darkening pigments retain line and linea-
ments.
The mere adding of accessories in the way of
composition or background or the adoption of a
classic or theatrical pose may make the work more
decorative, but it does not enhance the real merit
of the portrait, the status of which cannot be altered
by the surrounding canvas.
When Mrs. Siddons entered Reynolds's studio, he
said, as he conducted her to the raised platform :
" Take your seat upon the throne for which you
were born, and suggest to me the idea of the ' Tragic
Muse.' "
" I made a few steps," relates the actress, " and
then took at once the attitude in which the * Tragic
Muse' has remained."
When the portrait was finished, Sir Joshua said :
" I cannot lose this opportunity of sending my
name to posterity on the hem of your garment," and
he placed his signature on the border of the gown.
All of which are the conditions under which the-
atrical and meritricious art is produced. The por-
trait of a woman posing as the "Tragic Muse" may
turn out well, but the chances are otherwise.
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OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
There are "portrait-painters" who are better than
others, and the best of all were Rembrandt and
Velasquez, the latter the greatest portrait-painter
who ever lived, — so great that his portraits are great
as pictures ; but not quite in the abstract sense that
a painting by Raphael is a picture, — a bright and
beautiful song in line and color ; not quite in the
sense that a painting by Angelo is a picture, — the
tumultuous outpouring of a human soul ; not quite
in the subtle sense that a painting by Whistler is a
picture, — a harmony to delight the eye as music
delights the ear.
Rembrandt and Velasquez were great in technical
directions in their portraiture, and their achieve-
ments remain unchallenged ; but in the painting of
portraits each was something of the " portrait-
painter," — not the facile, commercial painter of to-
day, but they painted portraits to earn their living.
Now and then the portrait was a labor of love and
a great picture, seldom — at least in the case of
Velasquez — a matter of drudgery, and therefore a
failure.
Velasquez was so happily situated in the court at
Madrid, of the king's household, on friendly terms
with the royal family, that he painted their portraits
with far more devotion and interest than he could
possibly feel towards a stranger.
A portrait of Philip the Fourth by Velasquez
ought to be as good a work of art as a bust of
Pericles by Phidias, — and that is about the most
that can be said in portraiture, — but a bust of
253
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
Pericles would not be the best that the art of
Phidias could do, for his art was not limited by
lineaments.
Wherein the art of Whistler differed from the art
of Rembrandt and Velasquez in the painting of
human likenesses is as follows :
With Whistler the sitter, whether model or patron,
was subordinated to the composition, to the har-
mony of line and color, — was simply an integral part
of the larger scheme in the painter's mind.
With Rembrandt and Velasquez the sitter was
the important feature, everything else being quite
casual ; the object in mind being to paint a great
portrait, to put a human being on canvas. A worthy
object when worthily done, but not quite so pure
and subtle and abstract, not quite so free from limi-
tations of time and place and person as the intention
to do something of universal validity in which the
individual shall not obtrude beyond his due measure
of importance.
In the attempt to do things that had never been
done before, in the attempt to make painting as pure
an art as music and poetry, Whistler possibly made
many failures, or rather many more or less incom-
plete successes, but in his best things it is undeniably
true that he produced pictures wherein the portrait
element was as subtly if not as " strongly" developed
as in anything ever before painted, and wherein at
the same time that element was successfully sub-
ordinated to ideals more refined and universal.
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OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
Both Rembrandt and Velasquez did "stronger"
things than Whistler, — that is to say, they placed
their subjects more positively and forcefully on the
canvas, so that they stand out more aggressively, and
fill not only their frames but the room ; they do
not obtrude, but they are great big characterizations
which make themselves felt in any company.
Whistler's portraits, like all his pictures, retire
within their frames, do not assert themselves, are not
"strong," as the term is quite legitimately used in
the sense of powerful, positive, and vigorous. His
portraits are neither "stunning" nor overwhelming;
they are so quiet, restful, and harmonious as to
almost escape notice. There is a wraith-like qual-
ity about some of them that has often been noted ;
some of them seem the portraits of shadows rather
than realities.
A woman standing before "The Fur Jacket" said :
" So that is a portrait of a woman by Whistler?"
"No," replied her companion; "it is Whistler's
impression of a woman."
Neither was right, — for, as a matter of fact, it is
simply a composition of line and color wherein a
woman — in this case a model — is the central figure
of the arrangement. The painting of a likeness
was not in Whistler's mind at all. The painting of
a woman, either as a type or an individual, probably
did not enter his head ; but he had in mind a scheme
which pleased him, and this scheme he placed on
canvas. It is quite likely the woman happened to
enter his studio, and the effect of figure, costume,
255
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
and environment caught his fancy. That was the
way many of the portraits were begun.
Lady Archibald Campbell was nothing to him
except a possibility ; she was to him as a theme, as
a motive to a musician. At the outset he had all
sorts of trouble with the picture ; and it was not
until one day Lady Campbell happened to come in
with her fur cape over her shoulders that he made
a new start and painted the picture. It is a great
portrait, one of his very best, a haunting likeness of a
woman ; not such a photographic likeness as friends
and relatives demand, but just the likeness that
posterity demands : a woman, a type, with all the
charm, all the refinement, all the real, the true, the
elusive qualities of a woman, — in short, those quali-
ties of mind and body which reappear in descend-
ants of the third and fourth generation and demon-
strate the faithfulness of the portrait.
There is no portrait by Rembrandt or Velasquez
which at all resembles Whistler's portrait of his
mother.
It is not at all like anything by Rembrandt ;
there is a hint of the blacks and grays of Velasquez,
but that is a superficial observation made by every
passing tourist.
In scheme, composition, intention, and execution
the picture is essentially different from anything the
great Spanish painter ever did. One ought to
recognize the fundamental difference between the
two artists on looking at the little " Infanta" in the
256
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
Louvre, — there is no need to go farther. Velasquez
had a firm strong grasp of life about him which
Whistler lacked. The one was a man among men,
the other a poet among poets, a musician among
musicians, a dreamer among dreamers ; the one
painted men, women, and children because they
interested him, the other painted them because he
was interested in beautiful things ; the one viewed
the world by day with his feet planted firmly on the
ground, the other viewed it by dusk and by night
with his head in the mist and clouds.
There was the same difference between Velasquez
and Whistler that there is between two poets, one
of whom — like, say, Byron — deals with life with a
sure hand, the other — like Keats — deals with beauty
as the finest thing in life.
In poetry even the casual reader does not con-
found men of opposite temperaments, though both
use the medium of verse to express their thoughts ;
but in painting, people habitually confuse men who
have absolutely nothing in common except the me-
dium they use. And yet for every poet there is
somewhere a painter of like moods and temper-
ament. Men do not differ, though some use poetry,
some music, some sculpture, some painting to ex-
press their fancies and convictions.
Were one so disposed, it would not be difficult to
point out the Browning, the Tennyson, the Whitman,
the Bach, the Beethoven, the Wagner of painting,
for the human soul is the same in every art.
17 257
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
Beyond the fact, therefore, that Velasquez and
Whistler both expressed themselves by means of
painting, they were not at all alike, and their work
must reflect their fundamental differences.
Whistler, in susceptibility to color and fleeting
line, in love for abstract, almost ethereal beauty,
was akin to the choice spirits of the far East He
found more that appealed to him and affected him
in the blue-and-white porcelain of China than in
any painting from Madrid. Velasquez might give
him many valuable hints as to the use of color, as
to the practice of his art, but no suggestions what-
soever as to ends and aims. These motives he
found in the East, in those wonderful lands where
men, leaving nature far behind, almost touched
heaven in their philosophies, and did seize some of
heaven's infinite blues and silvery grays in their arts.
It is idle to compare Whistler's portraits with
those of any other man, for the qualities that make
those of others great are not found accentuated in
his, and the qualities that make his great are not
found refined in those of others.
The matter of likeness, which troubles most peo-
ple, is of vital importance to the "portrait-painter,"
since it is his sole excuse, the only justification he
has for existing, but to art it does not matter at
all.
Likeness has no objective existence. It is en-
tirely a matter of impression, a subjective realiza-
258
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
tion. Beyond the size of the mouth, the shape of
the nose, the color of the eyes there is little to
what is called a " likeness." A person never looks
the same to different people or on different occa-
sions.
To the casual acquaintance a " likeness" is but
skin deep ; to the friend of a lifetime it is alto-
gether a matter of character. A portrait that
satisfies a wife fails to please a mother, and one that
provokes the applause of the passing throng is a
disappointment to the family.
For what is one man's appearance to another but
the impact of personality upon personality, the
coming together of two vitalities clothed in flesh
and blood. But some there are who see only the
clothes of another, — the very outward shell and
husk ; others who see only the flesh and blood, —
the physical covering ; others who get at the man
and know him in part as he is. For whom shall the
portrait be painted, — for those who see, or those
who know, or those who love? And by whom
shall the portrait be painted, — by the tailor-painter
or by the soul-painter?
The world is filled with painters of the super-
ficial, with painters of husks ; and those are the
painters who impress the multitude, for they see
what the multitude see, and there is no mystery to
puzzle, but everything is superficial and plain.
A likeness is the physical semblance of the soul ;
and the only likeness worth having on canvas or in
259
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
marble or in words is the faithful transcript of the
impression the sitter makes on the artist
From the fact that this impression changes and
deepens from hour to hour, and day to day, and
week to week, as the two beings come to know each
other, it follows that the best portrait can only be
painted after sufficient acquaintance for the dissipa-
tion of those superficial traits and characteristics
which envelop everyone like a fog.
It is the special province of caricature to seize
upon a man's superficialities and peculiarities, and
make the most or the worst of them ; but it is the
business of portraiture to get beneath and give a
glimpse, an impression of the true man.
To this end Whistler's many and long sittings
were of inestimable service. The portrait grew
with his acqaintance with his sitter. What first
pleased him as a scheme of color and an agreeable
personality came in time to interest him as a human
being, with the result in the most successful can-
vases that the picture would be all he desired as a
harmony, as a song without sound, and also a mar-
vellously subtle realization of his impression of the
human being he had learned to know.
In one respect the identity of a portrait is not a
matter of entire indifference, for the attitude of the
painter is more or less affected by his relation to the
sitter, and whatever affects him affects his work.
Many an artist does his best when his wife or
child or some one he loves is the model ; and the
260
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
man who could not paint his mother a little better,
a little more sympathetically than a stranger would
be soulless indeed. In poetry the influence of a
mistress is a matter of tradition.
The picture, as a work of art, must be judged in-
dependently of its associations. It stands by itself,
and is good, bad, or indifferent, regardless of the
painter or the conditions under which it was done ;
but some of its excellencies may be explained if we
learn it was a labor of love.
It would not add a feather's weight to the superb
qualitities of the " Hermes," at Olympia, if it were
discovered to be a likeness of the sculptor's son ;
nor would it detract in the slightest degree from its
perfection if it were found to have been the work
of an unknown man, and not by Praxiteles, —
though in the latter case there would be a great
abatement of enthusiasm on the part of the touring
public. But if a number of the master's works
were in existence, and it was perceived that the
" Hermes" possessed certain qualities of tenderness,
certain indefinable elements of superiority that
made it the masterpiece, the knowledge that some
one whom the sculptor loved dearly had posed
would help to explain the almost imperceptible dif-
ferences. The work would stand on its own merits ;
but one of the reasons why it stood so high would
be found in the relationship between sculptor and
model.
By many who should be qualified to speak Whist-
ler's portrait of his mother is considered his master-
261
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
piece, possibly by some because it is of his mother,
but by others quite independently of the relation-
ship.
Others there are who consider the portrait of
Carlyle his masterpiece, possibly because it is of
Carlyle, but by some independently of the identity
of the sitter.
Seldom is the portrait of any unknown or less
known sitter mentioned in comparison, — all of which
goes to show the bias which results from knowing
the identity.
Every Scotchman would insist upon the Carlyle,
most of them quite unconscious of the patriotic
bias.
There are pictures far more subtle in color, more
" Whistlerian" in effect, more distinctively the crea-
tions of a great poet in color than these two por-
traits, but as compared with any two, or even three,
or, possibly, four others, the preservation of these
are of vital importance to the fame of the artist and
the advancement of art. In this sense they may be
considered his masterpieces, and of the two the one
that hangs in the Luxembourg is far the finer. It
is one of the few pictures that leave nothing to be
said by painter or layman.
It is more than a portrait, — it is a large composi-
tion of line and form and color ; it is a great portrait
made subordinate to a great picture.
Whistler was seldom so satisfied with a portrait
that he was willing to part with it. He could always
262
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
see things he wished to change, — partly, no doubt,
because his impression of his subject changed from
day to day, — and he would often keep a portrait by
him for months and years before exhibiting. In
fact he exhibited a like reserve about nearly all his
work. It was next to impossible to get anything
from him for current exhibitions.
He would faithfully and with the best of intentions
promise to have something ready. The time would
come, and he would be found still at work on the
canvas as leisurely as if so many centuries were
before him instead of so many hours. Nothing
ever induced him to either hasten his work or ex-
hibit it unfinished. The fact that he might not
be represented gave him not the slightest uneasi-
ness. The result was that the Whistlers seen were
generally old Whistlers, — all the better for that.
For instance, of the pictures exhibited at the World's
Columbian Exposition, not one had been painted
within ten or fifteen years, — two dated as far back
as 1864.
At the Antwerp Exhibition, a year later, there was
certainly not a picture painted within ten years. By
this method the artist had the advantage of his own
mature judgment and the assistance of time, — and
time wields a great brush. There is no glaze,
no finish, no varnish equal to that dispensed so
evenly, so mellowly, so softly, so beautifully by time.
Furthermore, there is no judgment so sound, no
criticism so penetrating as the judgment and criti-
cism of the artist himself on his own work after the
263
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
enthusiasm of the hour has worn off. One of the
finest indications of Whistler's greatness was this
reserve in the exhibition of new work, this ability to
do fine things and quietly put them away out of
sight, until with lapse of time they could be looked
over dispassionately, repainted if necessary, and
either banished forever or exhibited in all their
glory.
Most artists delight in seeing exhibited imme-
diately — often prematurely — the things they do,
and the delight is not unnatural. Others there are
who, on account of numerous disappointments or
from queer crotchets, are opposed altogether to ex-
hibitions. Whistler was not of the latter class ; he
was quite human enough to enjoy, as he himself
said, the honors which come from well-conducted
exhibitions. He was an officer of the Legion of
Honor, had received awards and honors without
number, including the extraordinary award of the
gold medal for etching and also for painting at the
Paris Exposition of 1900, and an honorary degree
from a Scotch University. These honors sat lightly,
but by no means uneasily, upon him.
His unwillingness to part with work led to no end
of trouble and misunderstanding. People could
not understand why they should not have what they
had bargained and often paid for, why there should
be any delay whatsoever, much less why after many
demands their money should be returned and the
picture kept by the artist.
264
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
All this is, of course, diametrically opposed to the
rules of commerce, and Whistler has been blamed
for his unreliability, to use the mildest term urged
against him.
Without knowing him it is impossible to under-
stand his attitude towards his pictures.
In the first place, he was profoundly attached to
them, whether sold or not. They were and re-
mained his work ; and in a humorous way he fre-
quently insisted upon this superior right of the
creator, — as on the fly-leaf of the catalogue of his
London exhibition, which read :
"Nocturnes, Marines, and Chevalet Pieces : a catalogue.
Small collection kindly lent their owners. ' '
And sometimes this assertion of a superior equity
went so far as to interfere with the right of posses-
sion, which was quite beyond the comprehension of
the multitude.
The story is told that a certain Lady B pur-
chased one of his pictures, but was never able to
get it.
One day she drove to the studio in her victoria.
Mr. Whistler went out to the sidewalk to greet her.
"Mr. Whistler," she said, "two years ago I bought one
of your pictures, a beautiful thing, and I have never been
able to hang it on my walls. It has been loaned to one
exhibition after another. Now, to-day I have my carriage
with me, and I would like to take it home with me. I am
told it is in your possession."
"Dear lady," returned Whistler, " you ask the impossi-
265
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
ble. I will send it to you at the earliest practicable moment.
You know, — those last slight touches, — which achieve per-
fection, — make all things beautiful." And so forth and so
forth, to the same effect, and the lady drove off without her
picture.
After she had departed, Whistler commenced to poke
around the studio, and, to the great astonishment of a friend
who had been an involuntary listener to the above conversa-
tion, he brought forth a canvas.
" Here it is," he said. " She was right about one thing,
it is beautiful. ' ' And it was beautiful.
"But the impudence of these people," he continued,
' ' who think that because they pay a few paltry hundred
pounds they own my pictures. Why, it merely secures them
the privilege of having them in their houses now and then !
The pictures are mine /' '
However, this side of Whistler is on record in
the case of "The Baronet vs. The Butterfly," as he
called the suit of Sir William Eden to obtain pos-
session of the portrait of Lady Eden.
As the circumstances of this famous case illustrate
Whistler's attitude towards his work, and at the
same time his attitude towards those who tried to
deal commercially with him, they are worth recall-
ing :
In June, 1893, Sir William Eden, a wealthy
English baronet, wrote a letter to Goupil & Co., in
London, asking what Mr. Whistler's price would be
for a small picture of Lady Eden, and he was in-
formed that the price would be about five hundred
guineas. He replied, stating that he thought the
price too high, and said that he would call and see
266
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
Mr. Whistler in Paris. Instead of so doing, he
applied to a common friend, who wrote Whistler
saying that the portrait " is for a friend of mine, on
the one hand, and, on the other hand, you will have
to paint a very lovely and very elegant woman,
whose portrait you will be delighted to undertake,"
and " under the circumstances I think you might
make very liberal concessions."
The matter of price was always a matter of indif-
ference to Whistler, — if also of indifference to the
other party, — and when Sir William wrote concern-
ing the price, Whistler replied very cordially in
January, 1894, as follows :
"Dear Sir William Eden : Your letter has only just
been handed to me, but this may still, perhaps, reach you in
the afternoon. It is quite understood as to the little painting,
and I think there can be no difficulty about the sum. The
only really interesting point is that I should be able to
produce the charming picture which, with the aid of Lady
Eden, ought to be expected. Once undertaken, however
slight, for me one work is as important as another, and
even more so, as Calino said. As for the amount, Moore,
I fancy, spoke of one hundred to one hundred and fifty
pounds."
The letter is quite characteristic of the artist.
His interest was in the possibility of producing a
charming picture. The amount he mentioned was
less than he ordinarily asked for a water-color
sketch, and one-fifth that named by Goupil & Co.
It must be noted that the amount is not fixed
by Whistler, but is left at from one hundred to one
267
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
hundred and fifty pounds, depending of course upon
the painter's own feeling regarding his work, and
not depending in any sense upon the whim of the
baronet.
The portrait went on towards completion. In-
stead of painting a head, as was originally suggested,
Whistler painted a full-length figure seated upon a
little sofa, the entire composition being quite as
elaborate an interior as if the canvas had been five
times the size. The picture was about fourteen to
sixteen inches long by five or six inches high, and
was such an exquisite bit of the painter's art that a
representative of a public gallery, who did not know
that it was a commission, offered for it twelve hun-
dred dollars, and higher offers were made.
Sir William Eden did not again refer to the price,
although he had many opportunities ; but on Febru-
ary 14, St. Valentine's day, the baronet visited the
studio and expressed himself as delighted with the
picture. On taking leave, he informed Mr. Whistler
that he was about to start for India on a hunting-
tour, and, taking an envelope from his pocket, he
handed it to the artist. " Here is a valentine for
you. Look at it after I have gone. Don't bother
about it just now."
When the artist opened his " valentine," he found
a check for one hundred guineas, — the minimum
amount mentioned in his letter. The baronet had
taken it upon himself to fix the price of the picture
on the eve of his departure. The "valentine" read
as follows :
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OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
"4 Rue de Presbourg, Paris, February 14, 1894.
"Dear Mr. Whistler: Herewith your valentine, —
cheque value one hundred guineas. The picture will always
be of inestimable value to me, and will be handed down as
an heirloom as long as heirlooms last.
" I shall always look with pleasure to the painting of it, — ■
and, with thanks, remain
" Yours sincerely,
" William Eden."
To which Whistler immediately replied :
" no Rue du Bac, Paris, February 14.
"My Dear Sir William: I have your valentine. You
really are magnificent, and have scored all round.
" I can only hope that the little picture will prove even
slightly worthy of all of us, and I rely on Lady Eden's
amiable promise to let me add the few last touches we know
of. She has been so courageous and kind all along in doing
her part.
"With best wishes again for your journey,
' ' Very faithfully,
"J. McNeill Whistler."
From the legal point of view Whistler made the
mistake of not immediately returning the check for
one hundred guineas, and the additional mistake of
exhibiting the picture in the Salon of the Champ
de Mars in the spring of 1894, as No. 1187, under
the title of "Brown and Gold. Portrait of Lady
E ."
But ultimately the one hundred guineas were re-
turned, and the baronet brought suit to secure the
possession of the picture.
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RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
Whistler would have permitted himself to be
drawn-and-quartered before Sir William Eden
should have any work of his. He felt, and most
justly, that a work which had been begun by him,
first, to oblige others, and secondly, as a labor of
love, had been placed upon a commercial footing
of the lowest level. He felt that there had been no
real desire to have one of his pictures on account
of its artistic merit, but that there had been an at-
tempt to secure something of commercial value for
one-third its market price.
The episode of the " valentine," truly ingeni-
ously devised, completely changed the relations
between the parties. He painted out the little
portrait, substituted another head, and stood ready
to return the hundred guineas and to pay whatever
damages the court might award the plaintiff; but
under no circumstances should the baronet have
the picture.
For the first time in the annals of litigation the
question was presented for final determination, —
whether an artist could be compelled to deliver
work which he claimed was not yet finished to his
satisfaction, even though he had received the price.
Be it said to the credit of the French tribunal of
last resort, that it held broadly that the artist is
master and proprietor of his work until such time
as it shall please him to deliver it. But that, failing
delivery, he must return the price with interest
thereon, together with such damages as the sitter
may have sustained.
270
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
The hand of the painter cannot be forced by the
importunity of either patient or impatient patron,
and no man but the painter himself can say when a
painting is sufficiently finished to be delivered.
Except in those few cases where Whistler took
such intense dislikes to sitters or purchasers that he
would not permit them to have his work under any
circumstances, there is no instance where the great
painter, in unduly delaying the delivery of a picture,
had any intention of depriving the owner of what
was rightfully his, — namely, the possession of the
picture.
Beyond the right of possession, Whistler did not
concede much to the owner. Frequently he chal-
lenged the owner's right to exhibit without his sanc-
tion, and he was quite inclined to deny to the owner
the moral right to sell at speculative prices. He
had a poor opinion of those who would buy from
the artist to sell later at a profit ; he classed them
as dealers.
Sitters did not always see things in the same light,
and became tired, then impatient, sometimes ugly.
Then Whistler would no longer like them, and the
sittings would come to an end. If the portrait was
unfinished, it was cast aside to remain forever un-
finished ; if finished, the money would be returned
and the portrait kept, — under no circumstances to
fall into the hands of a person whom he disliked.
The studio contained many an unfinished portrait,
some of them works of great beauty, but of com-
271
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
plete indifference to Whistler. He lost all interest
in them when he lost interest in the sitters ; and it
mattered not to him that he had spent and lost days,
and weeks, and months of precious time, nor did
it matter to him that his sitters had exhausted them-
selves with numerous and long seances.
Childless, his paintings were his children, and to
part with one was like the parting of mother and
child.
In these days, when the selling of pictures has
become an essential part of the art of painting, it is
difficult for people to comprehend the attitude of a
man who really did not like to sell.
"What are pictures painted for, if not to sell?"
asks the spirit of the age.
It does not seem quite so obvious that poems are
written to sell and that music is composed to sell.
Even the " practical man" feels that poems and
music ought to be made for something more than
to sell, and if they are not, they will be the worse
for the narrow end in view ; but paintings and
sculpture, they are commercial products to be dealt
in accordingly.
When Whistler did part with a picture he had no
faculty for getting a high price. His prices were
very uncertain. To one person he might ask a
round sum, to another small, — just as the mood
seized him, the price having no particular relation
to the painting.
He never could see why paintings should be sold,
272
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
like cloth, by the square yard ; why a large picture
should necessarily bring more than a small. To him
perfection was perfection, whether large or small.
What justifiable reason is there for the commer-
cial schedule of so much for a head, so much for
a half-length, so much for a full-length portrait?
The one may, but does by no means necessarily,
take a little more time ; but, then, a painter does
not value his work by the day.
A perfect thing is a perfect thing, whether large
or small, Whistler would frequently say. In the
matter of prices he was obliged to yield somewhat
to custom, and ask more for large pictures than for
small, but he did so reluctantly and intermittently,
with the natural result that dealers, who screen pic-
tures as the plasterer does his gravel, could do
nothing with him.
Of late years, with a demand far beyond any pos-
sible supply, his prices advanced ; but where a
Degas, for instance, would sell for five, ten, or fifteen
thousand dollars, a Whistler of incomparably greater
beauty would sell for a third or a fifth the amount, —
proof of what the co-operation of the dealer can do.
Some years ago he showed a visitor several heads
of Italian children, each about ten or twelve, by
sixteen or eighteen inches in size. With them was
a three-quarter length of one of the children. They
were all superb bits of portraiture, and akin to the
" Little Rose, Lyme Regis," in the Boston Museum
of Fine Arts.
is 273
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
The visitor was eager to get one or more of the
pictures. After considerable pressure, he said :
"I think they ought to be worth six hundred guineas
each ; don't you ?"
' • And the large one ?' ' said the visitor.
"Oh, the same. That is no more important than the
small. ' '
"Very well. May I have all four ?' '
"Dear me! You don't want them all ?"
" If you will let me have them."
" But — " and then the struggle began, " I must look them
over ; they are not quite finished. ' '
"But, surely, these two are finished."
"Yes, I might let those go by-and-bye, but not now."
' ' Will you send them to me ?' '
' ' Yes, certainly, after I have gone over them again. ' '
• ' I will leave a check. ' '
" God bless me, no ! You must not do that. It will be
time enough to send a check after you receive the little pic-
tures."
Needless to say, the pictures were never received.
They had just been finished, and he could not bring
himself to part with them. It was not a matter of
money at all, — likely as not he sold them later for
less, — but it was always next to impossible to get
him to part with recent work. If he happened to
have on hand a picture five or ten years old, pos-
sibly that could be bought and taken away, but
anything in which he was interested at the time
he would not let go.
In 1894 he exhibited three small marines, which
he had painted off-shore while the boatman steadied
274
LITTLE ROSE, LYME REGIS
2ID3H HMYJ t 380» 3JTTIJ
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
his boat. They were fresh and crisp, — so good that
a great painter of marines said of them in the exhi-
bition, "They over-topped everything about them."
Two were sold, and he showed the third to an American
who came to the studio. The caller said at once he would
be only too glad to take it at the price named ; the matter
was apparently closed, and the buyer sailed for home, leaving
a friend to get the picture.
A day or two after, Whistler stood looking long and earn-
estly at the little marine, saying half to himself :
" It is good, isn't it ?"
Then he took the canvas out of the frame, and said :
" I think it needs touching up a little."
Another pause, then :
" Do you know, I believe I won't let this go just yet. I
want to go over it once more. You know, I can send your
friend something else next winter, — something that he may
like better. And if he doesn't like it, why, he can return
it."
" But, Mr. Whistler, he wants this little marine. There is
not much to do upon it, is there ?"
" No — o ; but, then, you see "
" Well, why not give it the last touches now, and let him
have it. If you do not send him this, I am afraid he will
never have one of your pictures."
" Oh, yes, he will ; next winter "
' ' But next winter others will come in when we are not
here, and buy from you whatever you have."
" Well, we will see."
And only persistent urgings, day after day, even
after a draft on London had been forced upon him,
induced him to ship the painting.
At no time was there any question of price or
275
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
money involved ; he simply did not wish to part
with the last of his three marines.
It was not until about 1890, and after, that Whist-
ler's paintings began to sell at anything like their
real worth. To his credit be it said, his work was
never " popular."
By his independence, his seeming defiance of all
conventional and academic notions in his art, his
eccentricities, and his lack of commercial instincts
he managed, at a very early period in his career, to
alienate, —
Dealers,
Painters, and
Public,
the three factors upon which commercial success
depends.
"A millionaire — one who was getting up an art-
gallery — went to Whistler's studio and glanced cas-
ually at the pictures.
" ' How much for the lot ?' he asked, with the
confidence of one who owns gold mines.
" 'Your millions,' said Whistler.
" < What !'
" ' My posthumous prices.' And the painter
added, ' Good-morning.' "
276
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
X
The School of Carmen — In Search of Health —
Chelsea once more — The End.
To please Madame Carmen Rossi, who as a child
had been one of his best models, Whistler con-
sented in 1897 to criticise the work of such students
as might attend her school. As a result Carmen's
atelier was for the time being the most distinguished
in Paris, and it was not uncommon to see carriages
with coachmen and footmen in livery before the
door on the days that Whistler was expected.
As he passed about among the pupils he seldom
praised and was never enthusiastic. He would
sometimes stand many minutes before a canvas that
merited his attention and would suggest changes
and improvements ; and now and then he took a
brush and made the alterations himself, remarking,
if the student were a young woman, " Now you have
a Whistler all to your charming self."
The story is told that once he stopped before a
very brilliant canvas, and exclaimed, " Hideous !
hideous !" The student said, somewhat proudly,
that she had taken private lessons from Bouguereau,
and he blandly inquired, " Bouguereau, Bouguereau,
— who is Bouguereau?"
277
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
A pupil has printed some reminiscences of those
days : *
" Usually Mr. Whistler came once a week to criticise us,
and on those days the class, numbering anywhere from fif-
teen to forty, had been instructed to adopt a certain respect-
ful mode of bearing on the arrival of the master ; so, when
the concierge threw wide the door and formally announced,
'Monsieur Whistler,' every student had risen to return his
ceremonious salutation. Vividly I recall the scene : a man
of not much more than medium stature, but so slight as to
give the impression, when standing apart from others, of
being much taller ; dressed entirely in black, even to the
suede gloves ; every garment immaculate in fit and condi-
tion ; a little red rosette of the Legion of Honor of France
forming the only spot of color about him until a faint flush
rose to his cheek as he greeted the class with kindly smile.
"Then, as massier (or monitor, in charge of the class), he
passed me his long, black, fur-lined coat and tall, straight-
brimmed hat, — those well-known targets for the caricaturist,
— and began his criticism by inspecting every drawing and
weighing its merits — if any there were, as only too rarely
happened — before uttering a word. This silent inspection
finished, Mr. Whistler usually asked for a palette, — preferably
mine, because it was patterned after his own, and made him
'feel at home,' as he expressed it, — and then, without re-
moving his gloves, painted a few strokes here and there on
some of the pupils' work. Even in the matter of a palette
he evinced marked sentiment. A carelessly kept one was,
above all, his particular abhorrence, and generally elicited
some such remark as the following : ' My friends, have you
noticed the way in which a musician cares for his violin —
how beautiful it is ? how well kept ? how tenderly handled ?
Your palette is your instrument, its colors the notes, and
upon it you play your symphonies.'
1 E. S. Crawford, in The Reader, September, 1903.
278
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
"As an instructor he was courteous to each pupil, but
naturally most interested in those who followed his precepts
closest. Sometimes he jested at the expense of a luckless
pupil. I remember an amusing instance. Smoking was pro-
hibited on the days for criticism, since our master believed it
clouded the atelier and in some degree obscured a view of
the model. One day, upon entering, Mr. Whistler noticed
an Englishman, much addicted to his huge cigars, who con-
tinued puffing away contentedly during the ' criticism.' Mr.
Whistler turned quickly, asking me why his wishes were not
enforced ; but before I could frame a reply he had addressed
our British friend, saying, ' Er — my dear sir, I know you do
not smoke to show disrespect to my request that the students
should refrain from smoking on the days I come to them, nor
would you desire to infringe upon the rules of the atelier —
but — er — it seems to me — er — that when you are painting —
er — you might possibly become so absorbed in your work as
to — er — well — let your cigar go out.' I often remarked a
whimsical affectation of Mr. Whistler in his manner of speech
with different pupils in his class, — we were a diverse lot from
many lands, Americans and English predominating. If criti-
cising an American, for instance, Mr. Whistler's choice of
language, and in some cases his accent, would become mark-
edly English in form ; while in addressing an Englishman
he would adopt the Yankee drawl, sometimes adding a touch
of local slang. I subsequently learned that these were his
customary tactics, even in society, but in class criticism he
always addressed us in French."
His methods of teaching were original. He laid
little stress on drawing. He hated and despised
academic treatment. He wanted the pupil to paint.
A few careful charcoal strokes on the canvas as a
guide, the rest to be drawn in with brush and color.
And he preached simplicity, — as few tones as pos-
279
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
sible, as low as possible. But it is painful to record
that the endeavors of a certain proportion of the
class to attempt the achievements of the master in
this respect resulted in a unique crop of posters.
The constant theme of his discourse was "mix-
tures." He advised a pupil to get first on his
palette a correct and sufficient mixture of each tone
required for his picture. Often he would give a
long criticism without so much as glancing at the
canvas, — a criticism on the mixtures he found on the
pupil's palette ; and he himself would work indefi-
nitely at the colors, and all the while talking, till
it appeared to him to be satisfactory. "And then,"
says an enthusiastic young artist, "when he did
take up some of the color and transfer it to the
canvas, why, it would just sing."
1 ' One day on entering the class-room he discovered that
a red background had been arranged behind the model. He
was horrified, and directed the students to put up something
duller in tone.
' ' Then he scraped out the red paint on a pupil' s canvas
and proceeded to mix and lay on a new background. Some-
how the red would show through, and he found it difficult to
satisfy himself with the effect he produced. He mixed and
studied and scraped, working laboriously, surrounded by a
group of admiring students. Finally, he remarked :
" ' I suppose you know what I'm trying to do ?'
" 'Oh, yes, sir,' they chorused.
"'Well, it's more than I know myself,' he grimly
replied. ' '
It is to be hoped that his epigrammatic utterances
which hung on the walls of the Carmen Rossi
280
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
school have been preserved, for they would be val-
uable additions to the "Propositions" and "Ten
o'Clock" already published.
With none of the instincts of the teacher, he in
time lost interest in the school. After a year or
two his visits became infrequent, and upon leaving
Paris his connection ceased.
The studio in Notre Dame des Champs and the
home on the Rue du Bac were closed a few years
after the death of Mrs. Whistler, and he made his
home once more in Chelsea, at 74 Cheyne Walk,
with frequent excursions to the Continent.
In the winter of 1901 he was at Ajaccio, and he
wrote to a friend : " You will be surprised at this
present address. But it's all right, — " Napoleon and
I, you know."
In another letter to the same friend, speaking of
a public official with whom he had some legal
transactions, he remarks: "Say that I know how
devotedly kind he has been in his care of me, but
the care of the state overwhelms him. You can-
not serve the republic . . . and Whistler."
For many years his heart had troubled him, and
towards the last the warnings came more frequently
and persistently. The year before his death he was
quite ill at The Hague, and one of the London
papers printed the following of a semi-obituary
flavor :
" Mr. Whistler is so young in spirit that his friends
281
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
must have read with surprise the Dutch physician's
pronouncement that the present illness is due to
' advanced age.' In England sixty-seven is not ex-
actly regarded as ' advanced age ;' but even for the
gay ' butterfly' time does not stand still, and some
who are unacquainted with the details of Mr.
Whistler's career, though they may know his work
well, will be surprised to hear that he was exhibit-
ing at the Academy forty-three years ago. His
contributions to the exhibition of 1859 were 'Two
Etchings from Nature,' and at intervals during the
following fourteen or fifteen years Mr. Whistler was
represented at the Academy by a number of
works, both paintings and etchings. In 1863 ms
contributions numbered seven in all, and in 1865
four. Among his Academy pictures of 1865 was the
famous ' Little White Girl,' * the painting that at-
tracted so much attention at the Paris Exhibition of
1900. This picture — rejected at the Salon of 1863 —
was inspired, though the fact seems to have been for-
gotten of late, by the following lines of Swinburne :
" 'Come snow, come wind or thunder
High up in air,
I watch my face and wonder
At my bright hair, etc., etc.' "
The item called forth the following characteristic
correction, dated from The Hague :
' ' Sir : I feel it no indiscretion to speak of my ' convales-
cence' since you have given it official existence.
1 See page 185.
282
SYMPHONY IN WHITE, NO. II
THE LITTLE WHITE GIRL
II .Otf <3TIHW Hr YWOHIMYg
JflID 3TIH7/ 3JTTIJ 3HT
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
' • May I therefore acknowledge the tender little glow of
health induced by reading, as I sat here in the morning sun,
the nattering attention paid me by your gentleman of ready
wreath and quick biography.
' ' I cannot, as I look at my improving self with daily satis-
faction, really believe it all ; still it has helped to do me
good. And it is with almost sorrow that I must beg you,
perhaps, to put back into its pigeon-hole, for later on, this
present summary, and replace it with something preparatory
— which, doubtless, you have also ready.
"This will give you time, moreover, for some correction,
— if really it be worth while. But certainly the ' Little White
Girl,' which was not rejected at the Salon of '63, was, I am
forced to say, not ' inspired by the following lines of Swin-
burne, ' for the one simple reason that those lines were only
written, in my studio, after the picture was painted. And
the writing of them was a rare and graceful tribute from the
poet to the painter — a noble recognition of one work by the
production of a nobler one.
"Again, of 'the many tales concerning the hanging, at
the Academy, of the well-known portrait of the artist's
mother, now at the Luxembourg,' one is true — let us trust
your gentleman may have time to find it out — that I may
correct it. I surely may always hereafter rely on the Morn-
ing Post to see that no vulgar Woking joke reach me.
" It is my marvellous privilege, then, to come back, as who
should say, while the air is still warm with appreciation,
affection, and regret, and to learn in how little I had
offended.
"The continuing to wear my own hair and eyebrows,
after distinguished confreres and eminent persons had long
ceased their habit, has, I gather, clearly given pain. This,
I see, is much remarked on. It is even found inconsiderate
and unseemly in me, as hinting at affectation.
« ' I might beg you, sir, to find a pretty place for this, that
I would make my 'apology,' containing also promise, in
283
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
years to come, to lose these outer signs of vexing presump-
tion.
" Protesting, with full enjoyment of its unmerited eulogy,
against your premature tablet, I ask you again to contradict
it, and appeal to your own sense of kind sympathy when I
tell you I learn that I have, lurking in London, still 'a
friend' — though for the life of me I cannot remember his
name.
' ' And I have, sir, the honor to be
"J. McNeill Whistler."
In the spring of 1903, only a few months before
his death, three of his pictures were withdrawn from
the annual exhibition of the Society of American
Artists in New York. They had not been sent in
by him, but loaned by the owner upon the under-
standing they would be given the prominence which
he thought Whistler's work deserved.
In the absence of the owner in Europe the whole
matter was left in charge of a member of the society,
— a well-known artist, — who, when he saw where
the committee had placed the little pictures, promptly
withdrew them, and notified the owner of his action,
which was approved.
Whistler learned of the matter, and wrote the fol-
lowing letter :
"Dear Mr. L : I have just learned with distress
that my canvases have been a trouble and a cause of thought
to the gentlemen of the hanging committee.
"Pray present to them my compliments and my deep
regrets.
' ' I fear also that this is not the first time of simple and
good-natured intrusion, — 'looking in,' as who should say,
284
OF JAMES A. McNEILL whistler
with beaming fellowship and crass camaraderie upon the
highly-finished table and well-seated guests, — to be kindly
and swiftly shuffled into some further respectable place, that
all be well and hospitality endure.
" Promise, then, for me, that I have learned and that this
'shall not occur again.' And, above all, do not allow a
matter of colossal importance to ever interfere with the after-
noon habit of peace and good will and the leaf of the mint
so pleasantly associated with this society.
" I could not be other than much affected by your warm
and immediate demonstration, but I should never forgive
myself were the consequences of lasting vexation to your
distinguished confreres, and, believe me, dear Mr. L ,
very sincerely,
"J. McNeill Whistler.
" London, April 7, 1903."
To the end he worked with indefatigable energy,
save only those days and hours when he was com-
pelled by exhaustion or by the physicians to rest.
Work was a tonic to him, and, while painting, the
rebellious organs of his body were submissive to his
genius.
He would forget himself when, brush in hand, he
stood before a canvas.
During the spring of 1903 he had been far from
well. Into May he worked, but not regularly nor
for long at a time. In June he was quite ill, and
his friends were apprehensive ; but in the early part
of July he began to gain, so that he took long drives
and planned resuming his work.
On the afternoon of July 16 he was out for a
drive and in the best of spirits, with plans for the
285
RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
future that even a younger man could not hope to
execute.
Art, the ever-youthful mistress of his life, urged
him on. Should he confess before her the ravages
of years? In dauntless enthusiasm, in boundless
ambition, in spirit unsubdued he was still young. He
struggled to his feet and for the last time stood be-
fore the canvas, — the magic mirror from which he,
wizzard-like, had evoked so many beautiful images ;
he thought of the things he yet would do, of lines
that would charm for all time, of colors that would
play like the iridescent hues upon the surface of the
shimmering sea, of the wraith-like images of people
which lurked in the depths of the canvas awaiting
the touch of his wand to step forth in all their stately
dignity and beauty.
And the soul of the master was filled with
delight.
But the visions of beauty were shattered,
Like forms of the mist they were scattered —
As bubbles are blown by a breath —
By the grim, haunting spectre of Death.
The tired body could not respond, and there
where he had worked, on the afternoon of Friday,
July 17, the great painter died.
On the following Wednesday the funeral services
were held in the old church at Chelsea where he
often went with his mother, and he was buried in the
graveyard at Chiswick.
286
" We have then but to wait — until with the mark of the
gods upon him — there come among us again the chosen —
who shall continue what has gone before. Satisfied that,
even were he never to appear, the story of the beautiful is
already complete — hewn in the marbles of the Parthenon —
and broidered, with the birds, upon the fan of Hokusai — at
the foot of Fusiyama." — Whistler's "Ten o'clock."
INDEX
¥
Ajaccio, 281
Albany, 33 ,
Allen, Sir -William, 35
America, attitude towards, 52-53; desire to visit, 22; trip
to South America, 22-23
American appreciation, 15-17; art, future of, 63-64; char-
acteristics, 64-65
Americanism, Whistler's, 47-48
Ancestors, 25-28
Anecdotes and sayings, as a teacher, 277-281 ; attitude
towards America, 52-53 ; authenticity of stories, 81-82 ;
bailiff in the "White House," 112-113; Balaam's ass,
84-85 ; blue-and-white china, 70 ; Boer war, 45 ;
Carlyle portrait, 123 ; colors and pigments used, 72-73 ;
concerning a sitter, 238-239; concerning birth, 29; con-
cerning Carlyle and Miss Alexander, 121 ; concerning
Chicago, 27 ; concerning each portrait, 241-242 ; con-
cerning his portraits, 255; concerning poor lawyers, 148;
concerning purchasers, 265-266 ; concerning sittings re-
quired, 30-31; continually polishing, 84-85; Dieppe, 34;
disintegration of the Royal Society of British Artists,
218; early days in Paris, 86-88; early days in Venice,
92-95; effacing an insult, 43; falling down stairs, 114;
first money earned with brush, 80-81 ; Henry James, 85 ;
his umbrella, 227 ; Hogarth, 55 ; house-painters, 212 ;
late to dinner, 29-30; Leighton, 82-84; in lithography
suit, 103; man whose coat did not fit, 42; " Nana," 151—
153; Napoleon and I, 281; Nature looking up, 214;
necktie of a sitter, 191 ; no artistic period, 73-78 ; old
Delft, 71; painting in the dark, 214; " Peacock Room,"
129; of Peter the Great, 35; railway accident, 33-34;
rebuking an admirer, 162; rich man's house, 56; Ros-
setti, in; Royal Academy, 116-119; Savoy Hotel, 181;
school, 61 ; selling his pictures, 274-275 ; Stoeckl dinner,
'9 c, 289
INDEX
40-41; story of "The Yellow Buskin," 1 19-120; studio
on ground floor, 229 ; the arrangement in gray, 194 ; the
color of a critic's clothes, 195 ; the grocer's shop, 193-
194; the millionaire, 276; the model and the red back-
ground, 280 ; the pupil who smoked, 279 ; the republic
and Whistler, 281; the Ruskin trial, 144-147; the studio
stove, 231; to the Prince of Wales, 217; trip to Val-
paraiso, 22-23; unwelcome callers at studio, 228; visit
of students to his studio, 134-135 ; " warm personal
enemy," 156; West Point, 36; while in service of Coast
and Geodetic Survey, 37-41
Angelo, Michael, 253
Appearance and characteristics, 36 ; alertness, 85 ; a poser,
149-155; approachable, except in studio, 227-228; as a
story-teller, 224 ; at home, 222 ; attitude towards art
and artists, 122; attitude towards nature, 213-216; atti-
tude towards other artists, 56; attitude towards pur-
chasers, 265-272; attitude towards the Royal Academy,
115-119; careless about keeping list of works, 90; cour-
age, 42-43 ; dilatory habits, 37-41 ; dress when a young
man, 41-42; George Moore's theory, 168-172; his Amer-
icanism, 47-78; his dislikes and prejudices, 271-272;
laugh, 119; military spirit, 45-46; no commercial in-
stinct, in; no mystery about his art, 106-108; on the
street, 226 ; Puritan element, 49-50 ; refinement, 50 ;
sense of humor, 82; superstitions, 44; susceptibility to
color intervals, 191-195 ; West Point, 44; when twenty,
38-40
Art, abstract use of color, 211 ; and physique, 168-172; early
love for, 35 ; harmonies in line, 182 ; his paintings and
poetry, 182; of pure line, 180-181 ; Oriental, 176; purely
sensuous, 180
Artistic period, 73-78
Autograph character of work, 105-106
Balcony," "The, 58
Baptism, 32
Baronet vs. The Butterfly, 266-270
Beauties of form and color, 185-186
Beethoven, 257; relation to, 176
Birth, 28-29, 31-32
290
INDEX
Boston, proposed exhibition of pictures, 20
Bouguereau, 277
Boxall, Sir William, 53-54
Brothers and sisters, 32
Burne-Jones, 176; Ruskin trial, 146
Carlyle, 119; and Froude, 122-123; as a friend, 121-122
Catalogues, 167-168, 265 ; of exhibition in 1892, 160-161 ;
of lithographs, 104. See Exhibitions
Character. See Appearance and characteristics
Chelsea, Carlyle as neighbor and sitter, 121-122; Carlyle's
description, 109-111; death and last illness, 285-286;
early days in, 109; his last home, 281-286; the bailiff,
112-113; "White House," 112-113; "White House"
occupied by a critic, 114
Chicago, grandfather founded, 26-27
Chinese and Japanese art, 181 ; autograph character of
Japanese art, 105-106 ; blue china, 61 ; degradation of
Japanese art, 78; influence of, 55
Chiswick, buried at, 286
Coast and Geodetic Survey, 39-40
Color, "ability to feel," 208; abstract composition, 197; and
the musical scale, 195-196; art of pure color, 180-181
beauties of, 185-186; decoration, 128-135; first color
harmonies, 58; his own explanation of, 178-180; illus-
trated in different pictures, 211 ; in Italy and Greece, 198
of sculptor, 206 ; range of color-notes, 189-191 ; Rus-
kin's attitude towards, 158-160, 199-208; Ruskin trial
145-146; sense of, lost, 183-184; supreme as a colorist,
173; the house-painter and decorator, 186; used imita-
tively, 204, 207, 209; Whistler's susceptibility to, 191-
195
Colorist. See Color
Commercial side, lacking, 265-276
Conversation, a lost art, 149-151
Courage, 33, 36, 42-43
Criticism, language of, 161
Criticisms in America, 15-16
Critics, arraignment of, in catalogue, 98-102, 160-161, 167*
168
Critics and criticisms, attitude towards, 162-165 ; early criti-
291
INDEX
cism of Turner, 142-143; George Moore, 168-172; his
attitude towards, 155-157; his color harmonies not un-
derstood, 184; is the painter the final judge? 162-165;
order of appreciation, 173-175 ; Ruskin's attitude towards
color, 158-160; " Voice of a People," 165-167
Dealers, attitude towards, 276
Death and last illness, 285-286
Decoration, 127-133; as a decorator, 131-135; in home in
Paris, 220-222; "Peacock Room," 128-131, 209
Dieppe, 33-34
Dress, 41-42
Eden, Sir William, 267-270
England's indifference, 47-49
Englishman's stupidity, 16
Etchings, appreciation of a collector, 96-97 ; of Haden, 96 ;
catalogues of, 91 ; early French criticism, 60 ; " French
Set," 90; Haden collection of, 96; his first, 88-89; his
" Venice Set," 91 ; " Thames Set," 91 ; " Twenty-six
Etchings," 91
Exhibitions, 1868, 177; 1893, 65; at Antwerp, 263; at Chi-
cago, 263 ; at London, 265 ; at Paris, 1894, 24, 264 ; at
the Royal Academy, 114-119; criticisms of, 98-101; his
catalogues, 99-101 ; light and background required for
his pictures, 134-139; of etchings, 1883, 97; of litho-
graphs, 104 ; reluctant about exhibiting, 262-264 ; Soci-
ety of American Artists in 1903, 284-285 ; Society of
British Artists, 136; special, 120-121 ; with artificial
light, 135 ; " Yellow and White," 98, 132
Family, 25-28 ; brothers and sisters, 32 ; father, 27-28, 35 ;
mother, 28; mother's diary, 34-35
Fine Arts Society, 121
Foreword, 7
Form, appreciation of, 203
Fort Dearborn, grandfather built, 26-27
French art, influence of, 57-60; criticism, early, 59-60
Frith, 177; Ruskin trial, 146
Fur Jacket," " The, 65
Gainesborough, 249, 250
Gentle Art of Making Enemies," "The, 32, 154-155
Glasgow and the Carlyle portrait, 124 ; school, 55
292
INDEX
Gleyre, 57, 59, 79
Gold Screen," " The, 58
Greece, art of, 63
Grosvenor Gallery, ng
Haden, 32, 88-89, 96
Hague, The, illness at, 281-284; letter from, 282-284
Hanging of pictures, 124-128
Harmonies, symphonies, and nocturnes, his explanation of,
178-180
" Hermes," by Praxiteles, 261
Hogarth, 55, 249, 250
Honors and awards, 264
Impressionism, 72
Ingres, copy of painting by, 80-81
Interior decorator, 127-128
International Society, 121
Irish ancestors, 25, 47
Italian painters, influence of, 71-72
Japanese art and influence of, 55. See Chinese and Japanese
art
Khayyam, Omar, 243
Lange Leizen," " The, 58
Leyland, F. R., 128-131
Light and background for pictures, 134-139 ; as distinguished
from color, 160
Lithographs, naming of, 183
Lithography, 102-104, 180. See Exhibitions, Catalogues
Lowell, 31-32
Manet, 249-250
Marines, 24, 274-275
Marriage, 219
Method. See Work
Miss Alexander, 50, 119
" Mona Lisa," 251
Moore, " Modern Painting," 168-172
Mother, diary of, 34-35 ; portrait of, 53^, 5ft i]£
Music, 176-177; and color, 193; and 'painting, 179; and the
color scale, 195-196; range of sounds, 186-188; the un-
educated ear, 196; "truths of sound," 203-204
National influence, 61-78
293
INDEX
Nature and art, 213-216; and color, 216; and music, 215
Naval Academy, 37
Nocturnes, 119. See Pictures
Nude, attitude towards, 50-51
Painting and music, 179; flat tones, 212; his manner and
mode of, 231-237
Paris as an art centre, 62-63; early days in, 86-88; home
life in, 222-224; in 1855, 79; Rue du Bac, 219; studio,
131, 132
Pastels, 106-107
" Peacock Room," 128-131, 209; trouble over payment, 129-
130
Phidias, 253
Philadelphia, 120
Physical appearances. See Appearance and characteristics
Picture galleries, 124-128
Pictures, arrangement of, by periods, 211; "At the Piano,"
114, 210; Carlyle portrait, 123-124; estimation of, 261;
exhibition of, to visitors, 133-135 ; " Falling Rocket,"
140; hanging of, a lost art, 124-128; hanging of portrait
of his mother, 115; " Lange Leizen," 210; marines, 212;
naming of, 178, 183, 185 ; " Nocturnes," " Harmonies,"
and " Symphonies," 210, 211 ; present prices of, 114-115;
"The Princess of the Land of Porcelain," 58, 128, 210;
" Little Rose, Lyme Regis," 273 ; story of " The Yellow
Buskin," 1 19-120; Symphonies in White, II. and III.,
210; "Thames in Ice," 210; "The Balcony," 210;
"The Gold Screen," 210; the Japanese group, 210, 211;
"The Music Room," 210; "White Girl," 59-60, 109,
210, 282 ; " The Yellow Buskin," 65. See Portraits
Pomfret, 36
Portraits, classification of, 248; color compositions, 258;
difference between Whistler and Velasquez, 256-258;
each one to be a masterpiece, 241-242; his best, 261-
262; Irving as Philip II., 119; Lady Campbell, 119;
likeness, 258-262; manner and mode of painting, 231-
237; Miss Gilchrist, 119; of Lady E , 269; portrait-
painting, 244; sittings required, 30~3 I > 2 35 i wraith-like
quality, 255
Praxiteles, 261
294
INDEX
" Propositions" and " The Ten o'Clock," 108
Providence, 32
Puritan element, 49-50
Racial influence, 61-78
Raphael, 253
Rembrandt, 67, 175, 244, 253, 254, 255, 256; essentially
Dutch, 67
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 247, 249, 252
Rosa Corder, 119
Rossetti, in
Rossi, Carmen, school of, 277-281
Royal Academy, attitude towards, 114-119; exhibitions at,
etc., 114-119
Royal Society of British Artists, 217
Rue du Bac, 219
Ruskin and flat tones, 212; attitude towards color, 158-160,
199-208 ; attitude towards early criticism of Turner, 143 ;
color in his home, 207-208 ; his limitations, 165 ; suit,
140-149
Savoy Hotel, 181
Sayings. See Anecdotes and sayings
School, no American, 61-63 ; of Carmen Rossi, 277-281
Sculptor and portrait busts, 245-246
Society of British Artists, exhibition of, 136
Sounds, range of musical, 186-188
Springfield, 33
St. Petersburg, 27-28, 34-35
Stonington, 32, 35
Stories. See Anecdotes and sayings
Studio, description of, 230-231 ; in Paris, 229
Swinburne, 74, 177
Taylor, Tom, 146
Teacher, as a, 277-281
" Ten o'Clock," no artistic period, 73-78
Time, dilatory habits, 37-41 ; indifference to, 20-31 ; never
prompt, 30
Travel, dislike for, 33-34; effect of, on artists, 69-70
Turner and color, 199; early criticism of, 142-143; Whist-
ler's appreciation of, 56
Valparaiso, trip to, 22-23
295
INDEX
Velasquez, 60, 175, 244, 251, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257; essen-
tially Spanish, 68; influence of, 71
Venice, early days in, 92-95
" Voice of a People," 165-167
Water-color, his first, 106
Webster, Daniel, letter to, 35-36
West Point, 35-36
Westerly, 32
" White Girl," 53, 283
" White House." See Chelsea
Will, 240
Witticisms. See Anecdotes and sayings
Work always a pleasure, 90-91 ; as a decorator, 128-135 ;
colors and pigments used, 72-72, ', description of method,
231-237; exhibition to visitors, 133-135; facility in exe-
cution, 23 ; his attitude towards a sitter, 238-239, 241 ;
painting in the dark, 213-214; volume of, 104-105
Yellow Buskin," "The, 119, 256
THE END
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